Dear University of Kent UCU members,
I accessed my payslip today (Thursday 29th March) on Staff Connect.
It shows the first industrial action pay deductions, as it will for many colleagues.
It is listed as “Ind Action Unpaid” and specifies the amount, which in my case is 3/365ths of my annual salary, as I expected, given the way the university management have announced they will spread deductions (at UCU’s request).
It is now possible to apply to the local hardship fund if these deductions have caused you hardship. Please note, the local fund covers days 1-3 of the strikes, the national fund covers days 4 to 14 (details of how to apply to this online at https://ucu.custhelp.com/app/fighting_fund/
and more guidance is here: https://ucu.custhelp.com/ci/fattach/get/175411/0/filename/Fighting+Fund+Applications+Guidance.pdf )
The instructions for how to apply locally differ, depending whether you are hourly-paid or on a substantive contract. Please carefully read the relevant section. If you have multiple contracts of different types, please ask for personal advice.
Remember, we can only accept applications from University of Kent UCU members (we will check – if UCU have you listed as a member of another branch, this MUST be resolved before we can pay locally) and we can only pay a maximum of £50 per strike day (or the value of the loss, if smaller).
Substantive staff
Please save a PDF copy of the payslip which shows the deduction from Staff Connect. I was able to do this using Google Chrome, by selecting Print then using Destination to Save as PDF. I was NOT able to do this using Firefox and the Staff Connect help warns it may not work using Internet Explorer.
Email this payslip to myself, along with a covering email, stating the dates you were on strike and a brief explanation of the reason the deduction will cause you hardship. Please also give bank account details, so that we can make an electronic payment to you as soon as your application is processed. You can also send copies of documents by internal mail (Owen Lyne, SMSAS, Sibson), but email is likely to be quicker.
Hourly-paid staff
We will AUTOMATICALLY consider an hourly-paid colleague to be in hardship – no further evidence/explanation of that is required.
To demonstrate the losses from industrial action, which we don’t expect to be clear from a payslip, please provide the following document.
A completed copy of the “Record of Hours Not Worked (hourly paid staff) form”, authorised by the employing school:
https://www.kent.ac.uk/human-resources/pensions/documents/Hourly%20paid%20staff%20-%20Record%20of%20hours%20missed%20and%20Maintaining%20pension%20contributions%20-%20Claim%20Form.docxEmail this to myself (eg scanned), along with a covering email, stating the dates you were on strike, a note of your hourly rate and the total amount of money you have therefore lost.
Please also give bank account details, so that we can make an electronic payment to you as soon as your application is processed. You can also send copies of documents by internal mail (Owen Lyne, SMSAS, Sibson), but email is likely to be quicker. For bank details, we will need all of: Name of your account; your account number and your bank sort code.
GTAs
We believe GTAs should suffer no deductions, but inform us if you do.
Best wishes,
Owen (on behalf of local hardship committee)