Dear Professor Sir Gerry McCormac,
Teaching staff are the backbone of our University and dedicate their working lives to supporting us, ensuring we can get the best out of our time studying.
I am shocked by the fact that the University of Stirling has been deducting 50% of our teachers’ wages since 01/06/23 for each working day they have been participating in their union’s national Marking and Assessment Boycott to defend our own learning conditions.
This means the average teacher who took action would have lost more than £4000 in pay until 22nd August, often for refusing to mark a couple of assignments. Other universities in Scotland have acknowledged how grossly unfair these deductions were and capped maximum deductions. You are still refusing to do so, even though our teachers have been carrying out all of their other duties, researching, teaching, and assisting us as they always have done.
We believe this is disproportionate to the actual work university staff have refused to do during this time. Other universities such as Glasgow and St Andrews have reimbursed lost pay in recognition of the punitive nature of these deductions. Now, your refusal to consider similar agreements means that there will be further disruptions to the start of term – what should be an exciting time for us – with two more weeks of strikes which could have been avoided by a local deal.
This smacks of vindictive behaviour, and it is a poor use of our University's time and resources. There is very little support for these extreme actions, especially during a cost-of-living crisis.
I am urging you to retroactively cap those punitive deductions, and allow our teachers to get back to doing their jobs and helping us flourish.
Yours sincerely