While UCEA, representing Higher Education employers generally, refuses to negotiate nationally on the pay, inequality, casualisation or workload aspects of the Four Fights, many of these are also matters which can be negotiated locally.
Following contributions to drafting by many members at meetings and online, we have submitted a local claim on pay and conditions following the Four Fights principles. In previous industrial action, we were able to obtain agreement to improve conditions for casualised staff, and we will be campaigning for the employer to agree further improvements on the pay and conditions matters in the Four Fights dispute.
Since submitting the local claim we have received an initial high-level response from the employer, which members can read on Slack. While in many respects the response is disappointing and shows a desire to maintain the current situation, they have also agreed to additional meetings over the next two months for more detailed negotiations, and it is therefore crucial that our local industrial action remains strong.