Marking & Assessment Boycott

[aridapricot]

So how do you think this will pan out this time? Are you taking part? How do you think things will go in your university/department?
My uni is docking 30% pay. Also in my department (where the spirit tends to be "yes we'll do whatever UCU asks us to do but we'll also go out of our way to cause any inconvenience to students") people are already talking about mitigations... 🙄I am not a UCU member and won't be taking part but I also fear that at some point I will be asked to cover colleague's marking or (even worse) redistribute it (given that I'm HoD).

I left UCU so will not be taking part. Until this year, my department had a lot of keen UCU members and higher % went on strike than most other departments at my institution.

However fewer colleagues than expected went on strike this spring. Only a handful stuck out the whole strike. I expect those few will fully follow UCU, others may make some effort towards MAB, some of us will be marking. I'm expecting a certain level of chaos. Very glad to not be HOD right now!

I’m not in UCU any more but I know that my institution is docking pay at a rate of 100% on a continuous basis for those taking part in a MAB.

Mines come up with a 50% deduction if you let HR know before the start of the boycott and 80% if after

I can't afford a 50% pay cut for several months so won't be joining in (I'm wondering exactly who can take this financial hit )

Non striking staff also been told they will be asked to take on additional marking and prioritise that over other work.

In my department, I think there'll be a very small number of hardcore UCU he/hims who stick religiously to the MAB and shout loudly about it on Twitter and in department meetings.

Then there'll be a handful of UCU members who'll take the pay hit (50% at my place) just to get out of marking, but don't shout it from the rooftops.

The majority, though, will just work as normal.

Much like the recent strikes really.

I'm not UCU so won't be taking part. I'm not too sure where I stand if my HoD asks me to take on additional marking though. Can I refuse?

Our institution is docking 20%, our assessment period is coming up and colleagues taking leave etc rather than coming out and saying what they doing so leaving the responsibility of whether to mark or hold it all up with me. Agree about a high degree of chaos. Our institution also making mass post cuts ( voluntary at the moment) in the midst of this.

My university is docking 1/365 per day of not marking.

Ours is docking 100% pay so very punitive.

I want to take part but the cuts are punitive given the workload allocates almost nothing for marking. I need to do the figures to see if one month is possible. I hope whatever happens causes lots of chaos and we get a resolution soon. I'm so fed up of constantly fighting for basic recognition and have been looking at leaving academia for the past year

I too think K Stock is a hero, but the culture you describe is very different from ours.

Radical young things don't seem to striking here. It's the over 40s. I'm sure finances come into this.

I don't know anyone who would take a 50% cut - ours would be higher - to get off marking. Is marking all your colleagues do this month? We've a lot going on.

Can you refuse ... you can't refuse a reasonable request in line with your contract unless you're taking partial strike action. So unless your workload is obviously too high or the work to be marked a long way from your comfort zone, you would have to do it.

The only people I know who fully participated in the strike were young, very ardent colleagues who talked about it a lot and acted like they were recreating the miners strike. And one older, single man who admitted it was a good excuse to not work. Even he isn't doing the MAB as he can't afford to lose 50% of his pay.

That's really interesting. Our contexts are so different. Influences here I would say include local history, older academics being mainly local, younger not, lack of large post-grad research cohort - are your younger people permanent staff or not. And mortgages to pay, and babies to feed and whatever.

I wouldn't say there's much shirking involved in striking - I mean 100 per cent loss of pay for a day's strike isn't trivial, and it's not as if most of our work does itself while we are away. Or was pay not docked in your place?

Pay was docked but my colleague found striking was a good reason to not work - he couldn't seem to understand that he wouldnt be paid

At our place it is also only older people striking. The young ones aren’t interested and can’t afford it.

Your colleague sounds madder than most - an achievement of sorts on this sector

Our strikers seem to be split between two groups.

Firstly permanently employed people in mid to late 30s or early 40s with very prominent Twitter profiles and a dogmatic leaning toward TWAW ideologies.

Secondly PhD students and post-docs who also err on the side of TWAW and who've swallowed UCU's lines about exploitation and casualisation completely and uncritically.

These are the two groups that I'd expect to ardently stick to the MAB and shout it from the rooftops.

I do think some people will take a 50% hit to get out of marking. I'd say marking is a out 50% of our workload in May and June.

But the marking has to be done eventually, so how is it even "getting out of marking"? Hence the docking being so outrageoud.

Yes

You pay people hourly to mark - it's done
You reallocate - it's done
You wait for strikers to return - it's done (too?) late

Case 1 - you have saved money. Prob paid out way less than you've docked.

Case 2 - you're quids in.

Case 3 - there's been disruption and delay. Enough to justify the deduction? Doubtful. Anyone remember the long-gone days of Covid? VCs have options.

Not clear that any of these scenarios justify deductions. And punitive deductions are ideological (and very poor internal relations)

What's anyone's institution doing about research degrees and vivas in all this?

If UCEA think everyone has the same proportion of marking going on this time of year, they know very little about their sector.

At our place it will be redistributed to non striking (or whatever) colleagues. So the people participating in the marking boycott will never do it. Sadly I won’t get an extra 50% of pay (which they are being docked) for doing this. 🤷‍♀️

Like @QuintanaRoo the marking which was meant to be done by people observing the MAB will be redistributed to non-MAB staff. So, the MAB-observing he/hims will get out of it but the marking will eventually get done.

Apart from a couple of Jeremy Corbyn-style long-term activist types, at my place it's mostly junior colleagues and PhD students making noise about participating in the MAB (whether they'll do it or not is another matter). Mid-career and above colleagues seem to have lost heart with the union.

I'm no longer in UCU, but I don't think I'll take on extra marking ... or should I? I worry about my students, especially as I'm teaching on some team-taught final years modules.

We’ve been told no choice. The module team must get the marking done.

If I'm asked to take on extra marking I will pop frankly.

At my institution you will lose 100% of pay between now and the end of the marking period (late June), so I'll be surprised if many people take part in the MAB. Surely that's too much money to lose for almost everyone?