Covid-19: universities treating staff in ‘vastly different ways’

And all of this contrasts with private schools and International Pathway providers that have furloughed significant numbers of staff with no top up payments to govt schemes, rather than dipping into their vast profits and reserves.

Exeter has also done very well in my view

Been impossible for staff actively working in Covid19 research to take any leave since lockdown. Unable to secure any assurances of getting time back or extension to fixed term research contracts. Feel exhausted and overloaded.

The impact of COVID-19 on staff in this sector varies - those who aren't doing any work but receive full pay from the government furlough scheme plus 20% employer top-up, those who carry out their usual work but with less burden from the usual commute to those with caring responsibilities added to their normal workload. Universities need to think in both financial and ethical terms of how they slim down the pay costs. Staff (and some funded students) themselves could also look into altruistic actions some might have capacity/be in the position to take.

The opening paragraph is inaccurate: Queen Mary did NOT provide "two revitalisation days". This was an initiative of a single faculty and most definitely not a university-wide policy. Everyone at Queen Mary is still required to take annual leave to manage their caring responsibilities and there has been no backtracking or compassion from management whatsoever.

The article is quite wrong about QMUL. It states that QMUL “backtracked” from an earlier harsh posture by offering staff two “revitalisation days”. In fact this was solely an initiative by heads of school in the faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences (HSS). Senior managers clearly did not endorse or support this approach as they continued to schedule meetings for HSS staff on those days. Furthermore, senior managers continue to ignore letters signed by dozens of staff calling for a more humane and inclusive approach to university governance, while treating the UCU branch with contempt, even when challenged for violating UK health and safety law by excluding UCU representatives from the mysterious committees now running QMUL by fiat.