Kingston UCU have written to senior management to demand, in conjunction with Union of Kingston Students, that any money deducted from staff salaries as a result of taking strike action in December 2021, be donated to the student hardship fund. Other universities, such as Essex, UCL, and LSE, have agreed to do this.

Here is a copy of the letter:

Dear Helen,

We write to you in your capacity as chair of the JNCC at Kingston University and ask that you disseminate this communication to the wider Senior Management Team.

We are disappointed to learn that the university has chosen to take the unsupportive and punitive action of making deductions from the salaries of staff who declared themselves to have taken part in strike action in December 2021. The UCU national Four Fights campaign highlights the issues of excessive workload, casualisation, inequality and pay deflation, all of which are extremely pertinent to Kingston staff.

While we acknowledge that the employer is within their rights in taking this action, it is disheartening and demoralising that the current university leadership have carried out their threat to deduct payment from hard working staff, the majority of whom regularly work longer than contracted hours carrying out unpaid work from which the university benefits greatly. All this at a time when senior management are actively working towards awarding themselves pay increases. It is a further demonstration of the callous and uncaring attitude that senior management repeatedly display towards staff at Kingston and is detrimental to the continually deteriorating relationship between senior management and staff as evidenced by the recent staff survey.

Therefore, in conjunction with the Union of Kingston Students, we demand that the total sum of salaries deducted (and other cost savings incurred by KU such as pension and NI contributions) be made public and the equivalent sum be donated to the student hardship fund.

Rosie McNiece

KU UCU Vice-chair

on behalf of KU UCU branch committee