Peter Lazenby
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STUDENTS have occupied the council chamber of the University of Leeds in support of lecturers and other staff in dispute with authorities.
The occupiers say the action, which began on Monday, has already won them a meeting with the university’s vice-chancellor Simone Buitendijk.
Members of the University and College Union (UCU) are in dispute in Leeds and nationwide over pay, job insecurity, inequality and pensions.
Support staff who are members of public service union Unison are in dispute over pay.
The occupiers say the university has responded to a marking boycott by lecturers by stopping lecturers’ pay, even though they are continuing with other work.
Support workers are campaigning for a pay rise after suffering 10 years of freezes.
The occupiers are calling on the university to make a public statement supporting the lecturers’ and support workers’ claims.
One of the occupiers, a second year student named only as Robin said: “After meeting with the vice-chancellor, I am so disappointed by her attitude to the university community.
“She doesn’t care about our learning, mental health or our staff.
“We will stay until Simone Buitendijk agrees to resolve these disputes; she can choose to end this disruption.”
The occupiers said they had taken supplies of food and drink into the council chamber, and that they had received a message of support from Unison.
A rally was set to be staged at the university last night in support of the occupiers.
A University of Leeds spokesperson said: “It is deeply regrettable that our community is one of only 20 from about 150 nationally that is subject to this marking and assessment boycott. We have already made a series of commitments to deal with some of the issues at the heart of this industrial action, including cutting the use of short term contracts.
“Our priorities remain to protect the interests of students - including minimising any disruption to them; to retain the cohesion of our community; and to protect the standard of Leeds degrees.
“The University will consider participation in a marking/assessment boycott to be partial performance, resulting in pay deductions of up to 100% due to breach of contract, although where staff notify us of their involvement in advance to help us mitigate the impact, we will deduct at 50%.”
