Goldsmiths UCU wants all members to participate in the upcoming national strike action. The campaign issues of this national dispute affect all members: casualisation, gender and race pay gap, pay, workload and pensions. We recognise that massive pay and contractual inequalities structure our experience of work. We therefore understand that the cost of going on strike falls differently on certain constituencies of staff – especially casualised hourly paid members. For this reason we have laid out below the financial support that is available to casualised staff participating in the strike.
While it is important that staff feel reassured that strike deductions will be offset by accessible strike funds, we believe that precarious staff can and should take ownership over the upcoming industrial action. One of the demands of this dispute is to establish a sector-wide framework for tackling casualisation which would bind all employers to improve the terms and conditions of casualised staff. The worsening conditions and treatment of casualised workers in our sector and at Goldsmiths specifically cannot continue. Perpetual insecurity, non-payment of wages and the last minute issuing of contracts are all the norm at Goldsmiths. This will only stop when casualised staff organise and collectively fight to defend their own interests using trade union structures. In recent memory, casualised staff at Goldsmiths have organised militant actions to defend themselves (such as the 2020 wildcat marking boycott) and many have taken up important representative positions within Goldsmiths UCU branch, including the presidency role. Despite our situation, we are incredibly powerful as an organised collective. The university cannot run without casualised teaching staff.
Individually crossing the picket line over the upcoming 18 days of strike action will not solve any of the concrete issues of casualisation at Goldsmiths. Joining the picket, however, will not only enable casualised members to fight for their interests nationally, it will also allow them to meet and organise with workers facing the same issues here in our workplace. It is the responsibility of permanent members to make the arguments that the place for casualised staff is on the picket line.
How much money is deducted per day of strike participation?
Goldsmiths has stated that for all staff, strike deductions will be 1/365th of an employee’s annual pay for every strike day declared. ALs and GTTs will be deducted on the basis of a full time equivalent annual salary of a fixed-term contract.
ALs/GTTs should only declare the days of teaching lost due to participation in the strike. If you are not teaching on a day you are striking, you should not declare this as a strike day.
Goldsmiths have provided the following example of how deductions would be made for someone on a six month fixed-term contract:
B is employed on a six-month fixed-term contract, the equivalent of £30,000 per year.
The actual total salary over six months is £15,000 paid in equal instalments over six months.
The 12-month equivalent is £30,000 paid in equal instalments over 12 months.
For each day not worked due to strike action, the deduction is 30,000 x 1/365 = £82.19*
Therefore, if you are an AL and your full salary is £4000 and you miss 10 days of teaching, your deduction would be:
£4000 x 2 = £8000 (FTE)
/ 365 = £21.91 per day
21.91 x 10 days = £219.17
How can I apply to the strike fund and how much does it pay?
National Fund
In order to receive a payment from the national Fighting Fund members need to:
- be paying subscriptions at the correct rate;
- have participated in official strike action for which officers have agreed to make funds available;
- be able to supply a scanned copy, or screenshot, of your complete and unredacted pay slip(s) showing the gross amount of pay deducted for participation in the action, or other evidence that you suffered a deduction from your earnings as a consequence of having participated in the action.
For the 2022/23 dispute payment is made in the sum of up to £75 for the second and subsequent days of strike action taken by the member earning less than £30,000 gross per annum (this is subject to a cap of 11 days. This will be kept under review).
If you have not already claimed from the national fighting fund since November, this means you will be able to claim up to £825 from the national fund for this dispute.
To submit a claim please log in here, click on the Fighting Fund tab and then follow the prompts. You will be asked to upload a copy of your payslip with the deductions. Once a claim has been submitted you will receive an email confirming receipt of your application and providing a claim reference number. If you do not receive an email confirming receipt of your application, please check your junk and/or spam folders. Please do not make a further application until you have received confirmation that the national union has not received your application. You can check this by contacting them on fightingfund@ucu.org.uk
Local Fund
Members can access the local fund to top up loss of earnings up to £500 for the duration of the strike. You must attach payslips to show loss of earnings and fill in a short application form. A 5-member Working Group including a branch officer, treasurers, a lay member and a casualised member will field applications. For those members who are in a position to not make a claim or make a lesser claim, please consider doing so. Please note that for 2023, members will not have to provide proof of hardship when applying to the local fund, only their membership number and a payslip showing deductions. We will endeavour to support all members to the best of our ability.
Given the scale of our dispute and duration of the strike, members will appreciate the importance of building up the local strike fund as much as possible. We encourage every single member to reach out to all your networks – friends, colleagues at other universities, other trade unions, community groups etc. – and ask for a donation to the strike fund. The more we spread the word, explain the severity of the attacks and the significance of our dispute, the more our members can feel confident about taking action. Donations can be made here: https://goldsmithsucu.org/donations/strikefund/
Can I apply to both funds?
Yes. Or you can apply to one or the other. However, for any day of striking you will only be paid by one fund and the amount claimed for any given day must not exceed the amount of earnings lost in that day.
Can you show me an example?
This example is based on the college’s method of deduction (full time equivalent annual salary) and in the event that a member requires reimbursement for only 9 of the 10 strike days taken:
| Fixed-term contract total salary | £ 4000 |
| FTE annual salary | £ 8000 |
| Deductions per day | £ 21.95 |
| Overall deductions for 10 days declared | £ 219.17 |
| Local fighting fund claim for 2 strike days | £ 43.90 |
| National fighting fund claim for 7 strike days | £ 153.65 |
| Total loss | £ 21.65 |
When should I declare strike action? Do I have to declare it?
There is no legal time limit on when you have to declare your strike days. However, given that strike fund applications require evidence of deductions, it is at your discretion on how you administer the declarations and subsequent strike fund claims.
Do I have to wait until all deductions have been taken? Do I have to claim for all days?
You can either wait until all your strike days are deducted and claim for all at once, or you can make multiple claims. You can also choose to claim only for a portion of the days taken.
How should I check my payslip?
Deductions appear on your payslip as ‘Strike deduction’. The deductions should = (gross salary/365) X number of days action on that payslip – deductions may be spread over more than one payslip depending on when you report them.
If you think deductions have been incorrectly calculated by the College, contact a GUCU officer.
*Please note, GUCU does not agree that this is a fair reflection of the reality of a working year of an AL or GTT precisely because they are casually employed. Very few ALs/GTTs work throughout the year and if they are fortunate enough to have a contract over two terms, these will most likely carry different total salaries. GUCU will be challenging the use of this method.