We are launching this Open Letter on International Women’s Day 2022, a day intended to celebrate women’s* achievements, and to coincide with the period of the UCU #FourFights strike action by 63 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) including University of the Arts London, UAL. However, we are using this occasion to highlight how women and pregnant people employed by one of the most prestigious arts universities in the world - UAL - are suffering from a Maternity Leave/Pay policy** which is objectively one of the worst in the Higher Education (HE) Sector.

UAL boasts that its gender pay gap is one of the lowest in the HE sector. According to 2020 figures, UAL’s median gender pay gap was 7.0% compared to the HE Sector’s median gender pay gap of 13.0%. UAL is proud to have a majority women workforce with 59.8% of UAL’s staff identifying as female. Yet despite these proud declarations, UAL’s parental leave & pay policies are significantly worse than many London and UK HEIs.

UAL UCU alongside sister unions GMB and Unison, have raised this issue many times with the university. A joint TU letter from March 2020 highlighted how drastically short UAL falls in comparison to other UK and London HEIs (see table below). Whilst comparable universities such as RCA (Royal College of Art) and London Met offer 26 weeks full pay, London Southbank University offers 20 weeks full pay, University of East London offers 18 weeks full pay - UAL offers only 4 weeks full-pay to its salaried staff as maternity pay, followed by 2 weeks at 90%, 12 weeks at half-pay. Where the same universities (apart from London Southbank University) offer either 4 or 2 weeks full pay as Paternity or Partner Leave, UAL offers just 1 week Paternity/Partner Leave. Despite this letter and many requests for the policy to be urgently reviewed since, UAL have refused to consider reviewing and improving its parental policies. With UAL achieving financial growth and stability despite the challenges of Covid-19 (income of £344.8 million, operating surplus of £10.5 million in 2021), this shocking provision compared to similar universities is confounding: it must change!

Furthermore, UAL UCU has become aware of further alarming details regarding the policy and practice of parental pay and leave for Hourly-Paid Lecturers. UAL relies heavily on hourly-paid lecturers, with over 3000 Associate Lecturers employed by the university according to the 2021 Annual Report. Casualisation is one of the #FourFights which UAL UCU members recently voted to a large majority to take strike action over. Part-time staff as well as fixed-term staff, often working under extremely precarious conditions for many years, unable to rely on job security from one year or term to the next, should be protected by law under the The Part-time Workers (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2000 & The Fixed-term Employees (Prevention of Less Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2002. This means that part-time and/or fixed-term workers are protected in law from being treated less favourably than equivalent full-time and/or permanent workers. However, UAL UCU have uncovered that there are a number of discrepancies in the policies (a direct comparison between “Maternity Leave & Pay Policy – salaried staff” and “Maternity Leave Policy (Hourly-paid Academic Staff)”).

1. For Enhanced Contractual Maternity Pay (ECMP):

• Salaried staff who meet the eligibility criteria receive -

    4 weeks at full pay, 2 weeks at 90% of full pay, 12 weeks at half pay (plus the lower rate of SMP - Statutory Maternity Pay) then 21 weeks at the lower rate of SMP.

• Hourly-paid academic staff who meet the eligibility criteria receive -

    6 weeks at 90% of average weekly pay (based on average of 12 weeks prior), followed by 33 weeks at SMP.

This is a clear discrepancy between salaried and hourly-paid staff, to the detriment of hourly-paid staff, who should be treated equally by law.

2. Regarding OML (ordinary maternity leave) and AML (additional maternity leave):

• Salaried staff have the right in law to take up to 26 weeks' OML and up to a further 26 weeks' additional maternity leave (AML) and to resume work afterwards, a total of 52 weeks of maternity leave.

• Hourly-paid academic staff have a similar entitlement of 26 weeks OML and a further 26 weeks of AML if their contract extends beyond the 26 weeks of OML. We know however, in practice, that many HPLs are offered termly contracts so that the further 26 weeks of AML is unlikely to apply to them.

This is a further discrepancy leading in many cases to less favourable treatment of hourly-paid staff compared to salaried staff

Anecdotally, UAL UCU have also become aware of discriminatory practices affecting hourly-paid lecturers as a result of the casualised employment practices rampant at UAL. With HPLs frequently being offered contracts for work at late notice, on a term-by-term basis, this leaves pregnant HPLs often being excluded from the allocation of teaching hours within course team planning and thus arising in unfair situations to the detriment of a precariously employed staff body. The intertwined issues of casualisation, inequality and pay form, along with workload, the struggles of the Four Fights.

This is a call for current staff at UAL of all job types and pay grades to sign their name asking for UAL to take swift and immediate action to rectify the shortcomings of their current Maternity/Paternity and Parental Pay & Leave Policies. UAL UCU are demanding this shocking disparity be resolved within the equalities strand of the national Four Fights campaign of strike action and ASOS. We write as joint trade unions at UAL - UCU, Unison & GMB and encourage all staff members at UAL to sign and share this petition. Please add to the push from the pickets and stand in solidarity with the striking members by adding your signature.

You are also welcome to sign if you are a student, alum, or community member (affiliated with UAL in any other way). We hope to show UAL on International Women’s Day 2022, the university must address the injustices within their policies affecting women, mothers and pregnant people at UAL!

*Please note we wish to emphasise our usage of an inclusive definition of the term ‘women’ which is committed to defending the rights of trans, non-binary, gender-queer and genderfluid people.

**UAL policy refers to ‘women’, ‘mothers’ and ‘Maternity Leave/Pay policy’ so we refer to their policies by name. However, we wish to affirm in our use of language in this letter that not all pregnant people are women and thereby acknowledge trans, non-binary, gender-queer and genderfluid pregnant people and parents. We would welcome UAL to amend their terms to increase their inclusivity.

Image credit:

See Red Women's Workshop poster (left); UAL UCU, GMB and Unison logos (right)

Comparison of Parental Pay Policy in the sector (data correct as of March 2020)

Figures for City University, Goldsmiths, University of West London, and the University of Westminster were not found.