Industrial action 2019: staff FAQs

What can I do to mitigate the impact for students in my own department?

Heads of Department will be prioritising teaching and learning activities that should ensure that students are supported to meet the learning outcomes required of them by their courses of study. Enabling students to complete their courses should take priority over all other activities, and the following measures may be utilised (the list is not exhaustive):

Alternative practical arrangements

• Making some ‘short’ or low credit modules which may be particularly affected by staff absence, available in a subsequent term or year of study.
• Rescheduling of time / date / delivering staff
• Re-allocating affected students to different seminar groups
• Re-ordering module content to ensure priority material is covered within the remaining scheduled classes
• Replacing revision classes with content from missed classes
• Re-arranging individual supervisions
• Drop-in sessions

Using a Virtual Learning Environment

• Publishing lecture notes or other content on module websites
• Using lecture capture where materials are available and remain current and there is the author's permission for use during industrial action for mitigation of lost teaching
• Material from previous years added to the VLE
• Initiated student discussions online via online discussion boards instead of facilitated group learning in seminars

Further independent study

• Suggesting directed reading material
• Directing students to library resources

This priority order for rescheduling should be driven by the need to demonstrate course-level learning outcomes for final year students on professionally accredited courses and other finalists; then for students in other years of study, and then by module learning outcomes that cannot be achieved by means other than face‐face teaching. Support can be offered by the Central Timetabling team, who will be able to advise on what is practically possible in centrally managed teaching spaces.

Prioritising these measures may mean I am unable to complete other areas of work. What should I do?

Each Head of Department should guide their staff on tasks that might need to be set aside in favour of the most pressing priorities. Mitigating the impact of any strike on students and enabling them successfully to progress and be awarded their degrees is the University’s highest priority during the period November 2019 - July 2020.

How can I support students who are concerned about their academic progression?

Students are advised to speak to their personal tutor in the first instance, or their module/departmental senior tutor if preferred. We ask that departments contact students if their tutor or supervisor is unavailable, and provide details for an alternative member of staff. Students may also speak to their head of department or nominated deputy.

Please keep notes of meetings held with students on Tabula or other appropriate local system to document concerns and engagement so that it may be made available in the event that this information is required subsequently. The University’s complaints process can be found here.

Please also reassure students that the University has mechanisms in place to consider their performance in light of the disruption to their teaching.

Wellbeing Support Services (WSS) provides guidance and support on a range of issues, or students can contact the Student Advice Centre in the Students’ Union.

They may also share general feedback with the University via academic.continuity@warwick.ac.uk 

Can students make applications for consideration of mitigating circumstances?

Students will be advised that the University will seek to reschedule teaching cancelled due to strike action or provide alternative means of facilitating learning so that academic progression is not impacted. Where the University is able to re-schedule teaching or put alternative provision in place, students will be advised that they are expected to engage with these activities. Whilst acknowledging that some students may seek to express solidarity with staff during industrial action, a decision not to engage with these replacement activities will not be considered within mitigating circumstances procedures.

If students feel that the strike has had a significant impact upon their ability to study or complete assessed work, it will be possible to submit a case for consideration of mitigating circumstances to their academic department in the usual way. Students will need to show clearly how the strike has impacted upon their ability to study or complete assessments. Where relevant, the evidence presented by a student in a case for mitigating circumstances should be cross-referenced with records in academic departments teaching that has been cancelled. A guide for students can be found here.

In the light of departments’ knowledge of the impact of industrial action on specific classes/modules, an academic department may seek to make a claim for mitigating circumstances on behalf of a specific student cohort, and to notify the affected students in this eventuality to avoid individual students bringing forward their own case. Whilst at departmental discretion, it is expected that such a case would only be brought by a department in the case of substantial, sustained or irretrievable loss of learning opportunities. In this case, the department will have contemporaneously sought advice on how to avoid this circumstance with their Education Executive contact, and notified the Student Complaints and Academic Misconduct Team of their intention to bring forward a case.

How do I notify students of cancelled teaching sessions?

In the event that a teaching session needs to be cancelled, the following process should be undertaken by the teaching department. In order to minimise disruption to students, for example if they are travelling to attend lectures, departments should seek to notify students as far in advance as they can of cancellations by asking that those who are definitely teaching to confirm that their session is going ahead.

Email notifications can be sent to students by using Mass Mailing for lecture (whole group) events or Tabula for small group events as follows:

Using the Mass Mail service 

For lecture activities, you can send an email to all students on a module by doing the following:
Click here to bring up Mass Mailer. Then select the module-offering department from the drop-down list, choose the ‘Module’ radio button and click on ‘Select’.

On the next screen, start to enter the module code and select the correct option from the auto-complete list that appears. Click on ‘Add Selected’ and then ‘Next’.
You should now see this screen and be able to write the email contents into the main box and send.

Tabula Small Group Teaching 

A user with ‘Departmental Administrator’ permissions can send an email to students allocated to any small group event. Other users are only able to send emails to groups that relate to their specific permissions. For example, a ‘module manager’ is able to send an email to all students on any event for that module.
To use this function, find the list of students for the small group event, scroll to the bottom and select ‘Email these students’ as shown on the screenshot.

Further to this: 

• Notifications can also be sent using the MyWarwick app
• Delete the event so it is not displayed on personalised timetables.
• For lecture (whole group) activities contact Central Timetabling.
• For small group activities, this can be done on Tabula by any users with the appropriate permissions.

Can students from other seminar groups attend classes with other seminar leaders if their own seminar leaders are taking industrial action?

Each teaching venue is timetabled based on the planned student numbers for each class and it may not be possible to accommodate additional numbers safely in an existing booking. If academic departments are able to identify alternative larger venues locally or through central timetabling, they may feel able to support movement between classes. This is at the discretion of departments, who will be keeping records of all the teaching that needs to be delivered to ensure that re-scheduling or other appropriate steps are in place to enable students to continue to progress.

What do I do when student attendance monitoring points fall during industrial action?

Students’ attendance records should not be negatively impacted where there is industrial action by staff in their academic department. Missed monitoring points due to industrial action should not be counted towards the total number of missed expected contact points. If a lecture, tutorial or other planned contact point with a student is cancelled due to industrial action, any missed contact points caused by the industrial action of lecturers should be noted but treated as authorised absences arising from industrial action. Monitoring points missed in these circumstances should not be added to the list of missed monitoring points that each department sends to Student Records Management at the end of the term. This should, therefore, not have an impact on students’ visas.

What is the University doing to mitigate the impact of strikes on student exams?

The University has a number of regulatory mechanisms to ensure that student progression and graduation is protected from the impact of any disruption to teaching and learning. During previous industrial action the University has, for example, invoked Regulation 41 which means:

• Up to 30% of a student’s mark profile can be disregarded when the University considers whether a student may progress from one year of a course to the next, or whether an award may be made in the case of final year students. NB: a Board of Examiners is required to consider a student’s full mark profile once this becomes available
• The Vice-Chancellor can approve that Boards of Examiners meetings can proceed if attendance fails to meet the minimum required number or the external examiner is unable to attend.

How will the University manage the setting of exam papers?

Examination papers for exam sessions should be submitted to the Examinations team in Student Administrative Services, members of which will liaise with departments over omissions.

Departments should ensure that papers reflect the full range of learning outcomes required at the module level and explore with their Education Executive contact means of delivering learning opportunities to students where content is missed from taught sessions which are cancelled. Priority should be given to securing alternative means of delivering material required for Professional, Statutory or Regulatory Body recognition or accreditation.

Where this poses challenges, departments should take the advice of their Education Executive contact.

Every possible attempt should be made to deliver the expected content and assess in the usual way.

How will I prioritise marking as we move forward?

Finalists’ exam papers should be prioritised. First and intermediate year students will be informed via MyWarwick in the event that there is delay in marking scripts or providing feedback to them on assessed work. Students will continue to expect the timely return of assessed work and should be alerted by departmental administrative teams monitoring the impact of industrial action in the event that the usual 20-day turnaround time for the provision of feedback on assessed work will not be met.

Departments will need to give consideration to the alternative assessment of elements of courses due to be assessed by means other than written assignments which might have been affected by strike action, e.g. group work or presentations, practice, lab work etc.

Will students be able to graduate as expected?

Winter degree ceremonies are expected to go ahead as planned. Were industrial action to continue for an extended period, some students might graduate with an unclassified degree and receive confirmation of classification with their full degree certificate once their full set of marks became available.

How will meetings of Boards of Examiners proceed?

Heads of Departments should prioritise the timely marking of exam scripts and summative assessments in order that as much credit as possible may be made available to Boards of Examiners. Individual component marks and their credit value should be shown on Exam Board grids so that incomplete modules may be considered.

Departments should seek the participation of External Examiners in Exam Board meetings in the usual way. Where Externals indicate that they will not fulfil their anticipated role, Heads of Departments should report this to the Vice-Chancellor, and should report if quorum cannot be reached for a meeting of a Board of Examiners.

Should Regulation 41 be invoked, Boards of Examiners may take decisions open to them accordingly. In line with this, Boards will need to reconvene to consider a student’s full mark profile once missing marks become available for a final year candidate. Departments will wish to give early consideration to the scheduling of further meetings of Boards to fulfil this function if required, and work with colleagues in the Exams and Education Policy & Quality teams to determine the mechanism via which students will be informed of the final outcome of their examinations.

Departments are advised to keep careful records of all aspects of examination board procedures and documentation upon which decisions were based. The University will seek these in order to benchmark outcomes at the module cohort level against those for previous cohorts in order to reassure itself that standards have been appropriately maintained.

What will happen if students have missed some teaching required for exams?

Colleagues in Central Timetabling are able to provide staff in academic departments with information about the teaching that is scheduled to be delivered on strike days. Should teaching have to be cancelled as a result of industrial action, Central Timetabling will support departments in re-scheduling activities into centrally timetabled teaching rooms and will be able to perform clash-checking for teaching activities.

Departments may also re-schedule cancelled teaching in locally-timetabled rooms depending on their availability, but clashes in student timetables should still be taken into account. It is advisable to put in requests to Central Timetabling as early as possible to allow for the best planning of the timetable. Notification to students of cancellations and re-scheduled sessions should also occur as far in advance as possible, via Tabula, the MyWarwick app, direct email and/or via module tutors’ webpages.

What will happen if some staff don’t mark exam scripts or don’t release students’ marks?

The priority is on safeguarding the student experience and prioritising the completion of summative assessment for all students, particularly finalists. Heads of department should ensure that the work of colleagues who take action is re-directed to enable scripts to be marked promptly and marks to be entered into SITS. Boards of Examiners should have available to them as many component marks as possible when making progression decisions.

What will happen if some staff choose not to act as exam invigilators?

It is the responsibility of academic departments to provide invigilators for University exams. In the event of some staff choosing not to act as invigilators as a result of strike action or action short of a strike (ASOS), the department(s) concerned will be asked to provide alternative invigilators. Where this is not possible, the University will seek to provide standby invigilators to ensure examinations can proceed as planned.

I’m a PhD student due to invigilate exams. What impact will the strike have on this?

The University recognises that doctoral students undertake a significant amount of examination invigilation and it is possible that some staff also due to invigilate will elect not to fulfil this role during strike action.

The University will have put contingency plans in place to ensure sufficient numbers of invigilators are available to be deployed at short notice in the event that this occurs.

What will happen if external examiners take industrial action?

Departments should try to check with their external examiners for boards of examiners to identify where there may be impact on these events. The University’s Regulation 41, which provides for altered assessment arrangements in certain situations, provides for boards of examiners to meet without the participation of an external examiner in specific circumstances.

Heads of department (HoDs) should also seek to confirm availability with external examiners for vivas, and liaise with them, the Doctoral College and students if there is need to reschedule.

What processes should I follow if I take industrial action?

An individual is under no legal obligation to inform the University in advance that they are intending to participate in a day of strike action or ASOS. The University does not accept partial performance and accepts full delivery of role at any time.

We request that individuals notify the University (self-declare) of the intention to take strike action and ASOS days in advance, to facilitate mitigation planning and to minimise disruption to students through enabling the communication of advance warning of teaching cancellations.

Self-declaration can be completed in Success Factors - see guidance on how to complete this.

This will include the option to maintain regular employee and employer pension contributions for days of strike action. Where the employee continues to pay employee contributions for the days of strike action, and self-declares the days of strike action using Success Factors in advance, the employer contributions will be paid. Where the employee decides not to pay employee pension contributions for the days of strike action, the employer contributions will fall away. The choice not to pay pension contributions will affect the individual’s length of pensionable service.

USS life and incapacity cover will continue irrespective of pension contributions made on the days of strike action, for the 8 days of strike action commencing 25 November 2019. USS reserves the right to review this policy if the industrial action is extended or further action is proposed.

It is legitimate for HoDs to ask staff whether they intend to participate in action. When individuals do self-declare, or are reported as participating in strike action or ASOS, the information will be shared between HoDs, Faculty Board Chairs, Human Resources and the Academic Office.

Will I be treated differently at work if I take industrial action?

HoDs are expected to ensure that individuals taking part in strike action or ASOS are not subject to behaviour that disadvantages them for taking part, that they continue to include all staff in all usual departmental communications, meetings and development opportunities, and that they continue to operate departmental arrangements for annual leave, reporting sickness absence and working from home as usual.

Who can I speak to if I have concerns or feedback on the impact of industrial action?

You should speak to your head of department or their nominated deputy in the first instance. You may also contact your departmental HR Business Partner, or Wellbeing Support Services. For general questions or feedback, contact academic.continuity@warwick.ac.uk. There will be separate arrangements made for ongoing support for HoDs.

What sanctions does the University use in the event of industrial action?

ASOS (Action Short of a Strike)

The University does not accept partial performance and accepts full delivery of role at any time. As long as the contract is being performed in full there will be no withholding of pay.

The University reserves the right to withhold 100% where staff only provide partial performance; any work that staff do undertake will be done as a volunteer and without any right to be paid. However, the University will, at its discretion, and without prejudice to its right to withhold full pay in future for partial performance, withhold a lower amount initially. To this end, where individuals are only partially delivering against their contract, the University will withhold 25% of a day’s pay for each day that a member of staff participates in ASOS.

The University reserves the right to withhold more than 25% in the event of an escalation of the industrial action, or if the impact of the individual’s participation in the action or the action overall has a greater impact than anticipated, for example due to the length of time that the action continues.

Strike Action

In the case of strike action, the University will withhold a day’s pay for each day that a member of staff takes part in a day of action. A day’s pay will be calculated on the basis of 1/365th of a member of staff’s annual salary.

This will apply equally to academic and professional and commercial services staff.

Will my pension contributions be affected if I take strike action?

In line with USS guidance, the University will continue to pay ‘employer’ contributions to USS for the days a member of staff takes strike action, where the individual continues to pay employee contributions and completes self-declaration in Success Factors in advance of taking strike action . Individuals can choose not to pay employee contributions for the days of strike action in which case employer contributions would also cease. Individuals can indicate their choice in Success Factors when completing the self-declaration form, and appropriate adjustments will be made to pay and contributions as necessary.

Where an individual chooses not to maintain pension contributions the length of pensionable service will be affected in line with the number of days of strike action taken.

USS life and incapacity cover will continue irrespective of pension contributions made on the days of strike action, for the 8 days of strike action commencing 25 November 2019. USS reserves the right to review this policy if the industrial action is extended or further action is proposed.

Following strike action, what steps should I take?

Salaried staff - If you are a salaried staff member and participated in strike action, then please record this on SuccessFactors, stating your preference with regard to continuing pension contributions or not for the strike days. Please do this by 5pm on Tuesday 17 December 2019 in order that pension contributions can be made (if you so wish). The easiest way for salaried staff to do this is via SuccessFactors.

Hourly-paid staff (STP) - If you are an hourly-paid staff member and participated in strike action, and are also a USS pension scheme member, then you will be contacted separately about your pension contributions for the day(s) you took strike action.