Industrial Action
UCU, the academic trade union, has announced a period of industrial action at Northumbria University. This action affects the University’s Newcastle campus only.
We have written to all students based in Newcastle and we have shared information on the Student Portal outlining what is planned and what they should do.
As part of these communications, we have reminded students that not all members of academic staff are members of UCU, and that not all members of UCU will take part in the industrial action. It should be noted that only 60% of UCU members participated in the vote to mandate action.
Our goal is to minimise the impact of any strike action on our students’ educational experience and we have procedures in place to achieve this. We will make every effort to minimise the impact on studies and mitigate potential disruption.
Students should therefore attend planned classes as per timetable. We can't always give advance notice of classes being cancelled because staff don’t have to tell us if they're planning to strike. However, some staff may choose to inform us, which would let us make alternative arrangements or notify students of class cancellations. Students will be advised of any cancellations in advance wherever possible.
University buildings and services will remain open as normal for students to continue their studies in the event of any class cancellations, including the Library, Students’ Union and other learning spaces, and we expect most classes to proceed as normal.
The University has published information on the Student Portal outlining what students should do if their classes are unavoidably cancelled or where it has not been possible to repeat or replace sessions with a suitable alternative in a timely manner
FAQS and information for staff is outlined below.
About the Industrial Action
Colleagues at Northumbria who are members of the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU), the trade union which represents academic staff at Northumbria, may participate in the organised industrial action.
The industrial action relates to a local dispute over the University’s proposal to introduce an additional pension scheme and in the longer term, a total reward approach for Academic Staff, as a way to manage the very high costs associated with the Teachers' Pension Scheme (TPS).
Post-92 universities, such as Northumbria, have been required to offer the Teachers’ Pension Scheme, whereas pre-92 universities, such as Newcastle and Durham, provide the Universities Superannuation Scheme.
Employer contributions to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme have increased substantially and now stand at 28.68%, while contributions to the Universities Superannuation Scheme are 14.5%. TPS costs Northumbria an additional £11 million per year, compared to the cost of USS, which the majority of academic staff in the higher education sector are members of. This money could instead be used to enhance the student experience, improve our facilities for students and staff, and strengthen our financial sustainability.
Following extensive engagement with our colleagues and our academic trade union, UCU, we have developed a proposal that addresses these costs and we are disappointed that UCU decided to go ahead with industrial action in response to these proposals.
Full details about the proposals are published on the staff intranet on the pensions pages.
Industrial action will include:
Continuous action short of strike (ASOS), starting on 12 February 2026, consisting of:
- working to contract
- not undertaking voluntary duties
- not providing cover for absent colleagues and/or non replaced staff
- not volunteering for open days, graduations, and other significant University events and/or milestones
- a boycott of activities relating to the Research Excellence Framework
- Discontinuous strike action on the following dates:
- Thursday 12 February and Friday 13 February - two days
- Tuesday 17 February, Wednesday 18 February and Thursday 19 February – three days
- Monday 2 March, Tuesday 3 March, Wednesday 4 March, Thursday 5 March and Friday 6 March - five days
- Monday 16 March and Tuesday 17 March - two days
- Wednesday 25 March, Thursday 26 March and Friday 27 March - three days
- Monday 20 April, Tuesday 21 April, Wednesday 22 April, Thursday 23 April and Friday 24 April - five days
As noted above, not all members of academic staff are members of UCU, and not all UCU members will participate in industrial action. The University is working to mitigate the impact of any industrial action and students should therefore attend planned classes as per their timetable.
During strike action some colleagues (only those who are UCU members or are not a member of any trade union) may refuse to work and join picket lines to protest peacefully. Picketing is where colleagues taking part in industrial action gather in small groups outside their place of work to seek to persuade others not to work. Picketing can only be carried out by colleagues who work for the University. Students (who are not also University employees) and workers from other organisations are not able to join picket lines therefore must not be encouraged to do so.
Colleagues on picket lines will not stop you from entering a building or prevent your access to any part of the campus. Picket lines must not be intimidating.
If you feel intimidated in any way or witness any behaviour you find concerning, please contact the Security Team on 0191 227 3999.
Participating in Industrial Action
No — recording named individuals on the timetabling spreadsheet does not constitute the disclosure of special category data.
The spreadsheet is used for one operational purpose: to record sessions that did not run as scheduled and to capture the alternative arrangements put in place. Names are included only to identify the member of staff responsible for the session so that colleagues can contact the correct person if further information is needed.
The spreadsheet does not record trade union membership, nor does it indicate whether a missed session was related to industrial action. Some entries relate to sessions missed for unrelated reasons, and the named individuals are not exclusively UCU members. As a result, no information on the spreadsheet reveals or allows anyone to infer a person’s union membership.
Access to the spreadsheet is restricted to those who require the information for planning and coordination purposes. The University considers this a necessary and proportionate approach to ensure effective operational management while maintaining appropriate data protection standards.
To assist with planning we invite academic colleagues to let us know in advance if they intend to take part in industrial action or not, by completing this optional online form.
Completing this helps the University to take steps to mitigate the impact of the action on students, for example, by arranging for sessions to be covered or confirming that sessions will proceed as planned.
UCU members and non union members are allowed to participate in strike action. Colleagues are required to notify the University of their participation by completing the mandatory online form at the earliest opportunity but no later than their first day back at work.
It is the University’s responsibility to identify and implement suitable arrangements to manage the industrial action and this is a reasonable management instruction.
If you do not advise the University that you have participated in strike action it will be assumed that you have worked normally.
Pay will be withheld on the basis of 1/365th of your normal annual salary for each day or part day of participation in strike action. For colleagues on a fractional contract, the amount withheld will be based on the proportion of their contractual working week that they participated in strike action.
The University has a duty to prioritise work in a way which ensures students’ education is not unduly disrupted. Colleagues will be expected to engage in discussions about mitigation and put aside some activities, if necessary, to prioritise student learning. For example, colleagues who engage in strike action, and where their planned sessions cannot be covered, may be asked to reschedule sessions. All online materials must also be made available for students as soon as possible following the strike action. The requirement to mitigate the impact as close to the date of any missed sessions is not negotiable, and is considered a reasonable management request.
Other elements of student learning that must be prioritised include compliance with the 20 day turnaround period for assessment and feedback to students.
These requirements will be supported by adjustments to workloads so that this can be achieved as soon as possible.
Colleagues who participate in the industrial action are required to be on campus on the non-strike days in the same week. This is important to ensure missed sessions can be delivered and as a means of providing visible on-campus support to our students.
Refusal to carry out reasonable management instructions about the prioritisation of specific work and attendance on campus is a breach of contract and will be considered as partial performance of duties. As the University does not accept partial performance, we reserve the right to withhold pay for each day impacted by partial performance.
Contractual duties include those which are expressly contained in terms and conditions of employment and role descriptions (or can be implied in those documents) and those considered custom and practice.
Contractual duties are also those assigned by line managers including reasonable instructions about the prioritisation of work and timescales for completing tasks to mitigate the impact of industrial action on our students.
Failure to carry out contractual duties is likely to be considered as Action Short of a Strike (ASOS).
In relations to overall working arrangements and mitigation tasks a meeting with your line manager would not normally be necessary. Most colleagues will have enough flexibility within their current workload allocation to complete the required mitigation. Because student learning is the priority, if this is not possible and missed teaching sessions cannot be covered appropriately, research allocation will be reduced to accommodate the additional work. All workload adjustments will remain within the limits of the academic contract.
The amount of pay withheld depends on the form of ASOS and whether it constitutes a breach of contract or partial performance of duties.
UCU is calling on its members to take five forms of ASOS:
- Working to contract
- Not undertaking any voluntary activities
- Not covering for absent colleagues and/or non replaced staff
- Not volunteering for open days, graduations and other significant University events and/or milestones
- A boycott of activities relating to the Research Excellence Framework.
The first two do not constitute partial performance of duties and will not result in a loss of pay.
The final three have a significant impact on student learning or the performance of the University and failure to carry them out will amount to partial performance which the University does not accept.
The University has made it clear that it will not accept partial performance and reserves the right to withhold 100% of pay for each day when any or all of these three forms of ASOS is taken. Any work undertaken during this period will be done as a volunteer without any right to be paid.
The University is entitled to continue to withhold pay until all aspects of the role are resumed or the union calls off the action.
Any pay withheld for strike action will not be paid at a later date.
Participation in strike action is a voluntary withdrawal of labour for the strike period, and the University is therefore entitled to withhold pay for that full day. This deduction is not dependent on whether or when missed learning is later mitigated. Although some recent UCU guidance suggests colleagues should seek the return of pay before completing mitigation, this does not reflect the University’s position or legal obligations. Once colleagues return to work, the University may reasonably determine priorities, including rescheduling teaching or other activities missed due to strike action. For these reasons, colleagues are not entitled to have pay reinstated for strike days.
The University reserves the right to make an ex-gratia payment in relation to ASOS (and after withholding 100% pay) following an assessment of the impact of the action.
Where a colleague notifies the University in advance of their participation in strike action and it is possible to do so, sessions will be covered. Where this is not possible, or advanced notice is not provided, colleagues may be asked to reschedule sessions or put suitable alternative mitigation in place. These requirements will be supported by adjustments to workloads so this can be achieved as soon as possible.
All Northumbria University employees (regardless of contract type) who participate in the strike action should complete the online form.
Hourly paid colleagues, who participate in the action, must not claim any hours that they had planned/been scheduled to work on those days.
The data included in your online form will be processed for the following purposes:
- Operational/mitigation planning
- Making pay adjustments
It will be accessed by the following for the purposes outlined above only:
- Your Head of School (and their deputy)
- Your Deputy Pro Vice-Chancellor (Education)
- The Faculty Registrar (or deputy)
- Colleagues involved in processing pay adjustments.
Personal data relating to participation in industrial action up to 6 March 2026 will be destroyed no later than 31 July 2026.
Membership of a trade union is special category data. The University has a lawful basis for processing this data on the grounds of Article 6.1.b contract performance and Article 9.2.b 'processing is necessary for the purposes of carrying out the obligations and exercising specific rights of the controller or of the data subject in the field of employment and social security and social protection law in so far as it is authorised by Union or Member State law or a collective agreement pursuant to Member State law providing for appropriate safeguards for the fundamental rights and the interests of the data subject;’
The University is legally entitled to, and has a legitimate reason to, share the names of colleagues who intend to and subsequently participate in industrial action with those who require it for the purpose of assessing the impact of the action and putting appropriate mitigation in place.
In line with Northumbria’s Employee and Applicant privacy notice colleagues may make a request to the Data Protection Officer to see the data held on themselves and ask for it to be removed.
All Microsoft cloud storage holds ISO27001 Cyber Security Accreditation which ensures the security of your data. Microsoft form and Microsoft e-mail are both stored in the Microsoft Cloud.
If you tell your students that you intend to take part in the industrial action you must make it clear that the University is doing all it can to cover sessions therefore they should not assume that they are cancelled. You must not cancel any planned sessions. Faculties will communicate with students about any changes to scheduled sessions.
Colleagues must not engage with students about the dispute during teaching sessions.
Minimising the impact on student learning is the University’s priority when managing industrial action and the potential disruption caused by this sustained period of industrial action is considerable.
To mitigate the impact of the action the University requires colleagues, as appropriate to their role, to set aside other activities on non-strike days in order to prioritise student learning, for example, by rescheduling sessions to these days and ensuring dissertation supervision takes place on these days. It is for this reason that colleagues who participate in the industrial action are required to be on campus on the non-strike days in the same week. This is important as a means of providing visible on-campus support to our students. The requirement to mitigate the impact as close to the date of any missed sessions is not negotiable, and is considered to be a reasonable management instruction.
Yes, you may be asked to provide cover in the same way that colleagues are asked to cover for other short term absences.
Pay will be withheld from the next available pay date following the action, depending on payroll deadlines.
The University will use withheld pay, after meeting the costs to cover teaching etc, to provide additional support to students and their learning.
Both employer and employee pension contributions will be affected if your pay is withheld for participating in industrial action. There will be a reduction in contributions proportionate to amount of pay withheld.
Absence from work due to industrial action is considered as excluded service.
Under the Teachers Pensions Scheme (TPS) there is no option to make up the missing contributions.
Within the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) members may make up the missed employer and employee pension contributions. The cost will depend on how many days you participated in the action. If you wish to explore this please send a request via the HR Helpdesk prior to the first date of strike action, or as soon as possible thereafter.
Pension scheme members remain covered for death in service purposes while participating in industrial action.
Colleagues should adhere to the guidelines on the best use of e-mail when preparing their out of office. The message should simply state that you are away from the office, indicate when you’ll return and explain who to contact in your absence.
Learning and Teaching information for students
We have put together advice and guidance on the Student Portal, which also has a section to seek further guidance should you need it.
Please go to the Understanding Industrial Action on the Student Portal – all students as well as staff can access this information.
