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York Press reports: York St John lecturer's shock at wage inside June pay packet 21st July Full story here "A UNIVERSITY lecturer has said her June pay packet was reduced to ‘less than the minimum wage’ because of an ongoing pay and conditions dispute. The dispute involves staff at York St John University and the University of York and Labour’s education spokesperson at City of York Council has expressed concern over the lack of progress. Dr Suzy Fitzpatrick is lecturer in geography at St John and local branch secretary of the University and College Union (UCU), which is in dispute with the University and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA). UCU launched a nationwide marking and assessment boycott of students work on April 20 this year and Dr Fitzpatrick stated that she wasn’t told by the university when deductions from her salary for ‘partial performance’ of her contract would occur. Dr Fitzpatrick said: “What UCEA recommended universities did was impose a pay deduction on staff. “They recommended deducting 100 per cent of staff salaries while staff...

Dear Student, The University and College Union (UCU) branch of York St John University would like to provide you with an update to the Marking and Assessment Boycott (MAB), part of nationally coordinated industrial action that is affecting most universities in the UK at the present time. Your grades may be affected by this boycott. Firstly, every member of staff participating in the boycott understands the uncertainty, anxiety and difficulty that students may be experiencing as a result of the action, and has considered its potential impacts extremely carefully. It is not comfortable or easy for any of us to risk the dispute impacting our students by causing delays to marks and other uncertainties about progression, study abroad plans or visas, and accordingly we hope our employers will agree to return to negotiations as soon as possible. If you would like to discuss any aspect of this dispute with members of the UCU Branch Committee, to pledge your solidarity or to ask questions, please use the email at the top of the page. We...

We have received the following invites (see attachments) to activities/events members may be interested in: 1) Thurs 7 Nov, 7-9pm: Leeds Hospital Alert and Leeds Keep Our NHS Public meeting: How we are Going to Reclaim our NHS. Speaker: Sally Ruane, Health policy academic and HNS campaigner. Lecture Theatre B, Rosebowl, Leeds Metropolitan University, next to Civic Hall. 2) Fri 15 Nov, 9.45-3pm: TUC Austerity Conference. Unison Offices Leeds 3) Sat 23 Nov, 10-4pm: Yorkshire Shop Stewards Network Conference. Leeds Cosmopolitan Hotel. 4) 14 June 2014: 30th Anniversary of the 84/85 Miners’ Strike – Orgreave Mass Picnic and Festival 5) National Pensioners Convention campaigns for the state pension, universal benefits and health and social care – vital not only for today’s pensioners but also union members (the pensioners of tomorrow). NPC is asking all trade unionists to become a Friend of NPC. Set up a standing order from as little as £1...

Welcome to the YSJ - the Future blog. The new Vice Chancellor has spoken about his vision for York St John University. Since this was published we have had the Government Spending Review which will result in a 40 per cent savings from reform of higher education Lord Browne’s Review of higher education funding and student finance. Current indications seem to indicate that a fee level of £7,000 will become standard across the sector with more sought after courses and universities charging up to £9,000. How will these changes affect York St John University?...