Reporting Industrial Action

Published: 6th October, 2025

You do not need to report industrial action—whether strike action or “action short of a strike” (ASOS)—before taking it. After the action has happened, your manager can reasonably request to know if you have taken action. For instance, after our first block of strike action (currently consisting of 15 days across three weeks), you could be asked to report whether you participated in the strike action.

Leicester UCU recommends that you do not use the official forms shared by the University for reporting either strike action or ASOS. Please follow the advice below to report industrial action.

Reporting strike action

To report strike action please download the below document.

Apply a mark to the tick-boxes for the days on which you took strike action, then add your name and employee number. You can email the document to your line manager. If you prefer, you can print the document and send it by post to their work address.

You do not need to do anything else to report strike action and you should let the UCU branch know if you come under pressure to provide any other type of information.

The official University FAQs suggest that deductions for strike action reported before midday on Tuesday 14 October should be taken from the October payroll (received at the end of October) and deductions after this cutoff should come from the November payroll. We suggest, if using UCU’s form to report, that you submit it well before 14 October (say, by 6 October) in case the University decides to delay processing these forms.

While, in general, we are telling UCU members not to access university systems during ongoing strike action, we think it is acceptable for members to use their email for the sole purpose of reporting strike action early to spread deductions between October and November.

Reporting ASOS

The issue of reporting ASOS is more complicated. Our advice might change, so please check this page any time you are asked to report ASOS. We cannot use the official form because, among other problems, it declares that you are no longer taking ASOS. In fact, our action in relation to ASOS is ongoing. Some forms of ASOS, such as “working to contract”, do not, by definition, involve a breach of contract and will continue until lifted by the branch (or until our mandate expires in 2026). Using this form would therefore potentially involve making a false declaration.

If your line manager asks you if you have undertaken ASOS, you do need to reply honestly.

We are aware that senior management at the University of Leicester are threatening to deduct pay for some forms of ASOS, because they do not accept “partial performance” of your contractual duties. These threats of punitive deductions go beyond what any other university has done in response to these standard forms of ASOS, issued by many other UCU branches in similar disputes. Our view is that deductions for actions such as refusing to reschedule teaching is impractical.

If you are asked to reschedule teaching you should send this response:

Thank you for your email regarding rescheduling teaching activities missed due to strike action. Leicester UCU has taken official strike action, in line with the law, and participants are protected from victimisation or discrimination due to their participation in such action.

You are now instructing me to reschedule teaching activities that were missed. The university’s position appears to be that failure to undertake these actions would constitute “partial performance” of my contract and that the university does not accept “partial performance”. I have four questions before I can respond.

• Please explain the basis for threatening two separate deductions for a breach of contract with regard to the same activity. I note that you have already said that you will deduct pay for the initial breach of contract due to strike action.
• Please explain why asking me to reschedule activity missed during strike action, when colleagues who did not take strike action are not asked to take on such work, does not lead to a deterrent effect on those considering strike action and does not constitute a detriment to me due to my participation in strike action.
• Please clarify whether, if I refuse to reschedule, you intend to give work or directions to me if I attend work during the five days during which you are refusing to accept “partial performance” and holding me to be in breach of my contract, or if you regard my activities in the workplace during that period as voluntary.
• Finally, please confirm how the rescheduled teaching activities will be timetabled, given the limited availability of facilities and the crowded timetables of the students, along with their resulting workloads. Further, please explain how the agreed Workload Allocation Model would be amended to take into account the additional activities you have requested me to perform.

Once you have replied on these four points, I will consider my response to your request and get back to you as soon as possible.

If you are asked to share materials related to teaching online you should send this response:

Thank you for your email regarding sharing materials related to teaching activities missed due to strike action. Leicester UCU has taken official strike action, in line with the law, and participants are protected from victimisation or discrimination due to their participation in such action.

You are now instructing me to supply materials for the activities that were missed. The university’s position appears to be that failure to undertake these actions would constitute “partial performance” of my contract and that the university does not accept “partial performance”. I have three questions before I can respond.

• Please explain the basis for threatening two separate deductions for a breach of contract with regard to the same activity. I note that you have already said that you will deduct pay for the initial breach of contract due to strike action.
• Please clarify whether, if I refuse to supply the materials, you intend to give work or directions to me if I attend work during the five days during which you are refusing to accept “partial performance” and holding me to be in breach of my contract, or if you regard my activities in the workplace during that period as voluntary.
• Finally, please explain how the agreed Workload Allocation Model would be amended to take into account the additional activities you have requested me to perform.

Once you have replied on these three points, I will consider my response to your request and get back to you as soon as possible.

If you are asked to do anything else that would involve a breach of our ASOS:

Please ask your local union rep or contact the branch directly be email and we will advise.