Out-of-Office Email Content – February to March 2020

Thursday 20^th – Friday 21^st of Feb
Monday 24^th – Wednesday 26^th of Feb

I am on strike. The background to this is summed up by these points: In higher education…

• women are paid on average 15.1% less than men
• the disability pay gap is 8.7%
• black academic staff earn 12-13% less than white colleagues of the same gender and experience
• salaries have fallen against inflation by over 20% since 2009.
• academic staff work over 50 hours during a typical week.
• Over 100,000 staff are employed on fixed-term contracts, and a further 70,000 are employed on other casual contracts.

The industrial action is intended to force the employers who run higher education to improve the situation in four specific areas:

• Inequality
• Casualization
• Workload
• Salaries

While I am on strike, I will not be checking or sending emails. I will read your message when I return to work after the strike action and will respond in due course.

Helpful Links:

• Strike explainer for students
• Teach Out Schedule
• General information and updates at the Brighton UCU blog