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February 23, 2026February 23, 2026

update on VONC

Email sent to members on 23rd February 2026.

Dear Members,

Ref: Vote of No Confidence in the Vice Chancellor, Chair of Council and University Executive Board

Apologies for a second email from us today, we decided to send 2 separate emails today as both items are so significant.

I am happy to inform you that the VONC Motion, which was approved overwhelmingly by our members at the meeting held on 18 February 2026, was sent to Jason Carter, Chief Governance Officer, and Jane Norman (VC) at 5pm on Friday, 20 Feb, 2026 . We asked it to be forwarded to all the relevant roles, including President of Uni, Council and Senate. Our sister unions: Unison and Unite also did the same, at the same time.

We are now in the process of contacting the press.

Many thanks again and full solidarity.

Lopa

(on behalf of branch committee).

February 23, 2026February 23, 2026

Formal ballot to open on 2 March!

Email sent to members on Monday 23rd February 2026. Very minor edit made.

Dear UCU members,

After our overwhelming result in the indicative ballot, when more than 73 per cent of you voted with large majorities in favour of strike action and action short of strike, the national UCU granted us the right to move towards a formal ballot. I herewith confirm that we informed management last Friday that the ballot will open on Monday, 2 March. Please make every effort to participate in the ballot and talk to your colleagues to ensure that they do so too. A strong ballot will put significant pressure on management and provide us with the necessary tools to defend our jobs and working conditions.

For the duration of the ballot and potential subsequent industrial action, we have established a campaign group, which is open to all members. If you want to participate, please contact me from non-workplace email accounts at [email removed for privacy].

In solidarity,

Andreas (on behalf of the UCU committee)

January 22, 2026January 22, 2026

Vote in the indicative ballot and meeting reminders

Email sent to members on Thursday 22nd January 2026. Zoom links have been removed, please find in the original email.

Dear members,

Just a quick email with three bits of information.

Do make sure you vote in the indicative ballot! The email was sent first thing on the 19th of January and some people have found it went to a junk/other folder. It was sent by ‘UoN UCU Branch Committee’ from the yoursay@ucu.org.uk email if that helps you find it. It takes 30 seconds to vote, and a strong message now will help us in our new dispute

A reminder of our members meeting tomorrow (Friday 23rd) at 1pm. We will give you an update on the rapidly changing nature of Future Nottingham and all the branch has been doing to fight the restructure.

Promotion pause response. If this has impacted you and you want to help shape our response to it, we will be having a promotions-specific meeting straight after the members meeting at 2pm on the 23rd. Or else please contact the secretary Nick (nickpclare@gmail.com) to provide your input.

In solidarity,

Nick (on behalf of the committee)

January 21, 2026January 21, 2026

Workload issues to be reported to Health and Safety Executive (21st January 2025)

Your Workload Working Group will contact the Health and Safety Executive with further concerns, following their dissappointing response regarding work-related stress as follows:

Business Unit Stress Risk Assessments

Our Workload Health and Safety Reps have repeatedly asked to see evidence of Business Unit Stress Risk Assessments and to this date, we have not received a single one from the Health and Safety or Human Resources teams at the University. There is no evidence that the University’s own stress management policy is being followed nor that any mitigations are in place and enacted to prevent work-related stress.

Organisation Stress Risk Assessment

The Workload Health and Safety Reps conducted an inspection into the University’s ‘Organisation Stress Risk Assessment’ and concluded that the Organisation Stress Risk Assessment was inadequate as a number of mitigations included in the document are non-existent.

Freedom of Information request

A Freedom of Information Request confirmed the following:

No workload models are in place for our APM colleagues across the university, or for our colleagues in Engineering.
From 1 September 2023 – 25 November 2024, 7420 working days were lost to Work-Related Stress absences
4 out of 5 faculties have average workloads of over 100%
12 out of 23 schools have average workloads of 100% or higher, with some school’s average workloads as high as 116%

Effects of Future Nottingham

The University of Nottingham is currently undergoing a restructuring programme entitled Future Nottingham and has not provided:

Evidence of stress risk assessments concerning the planned increase in staff:student ratios from 1:14, to 1:22.
Adequate evidence of stress risk assessments in relation to Future Nottingham more generally.
Evidence of stress risk assessments in relation to course closure threats

January 21, 2026January 21, 2026

Welcome back! Dispute update, ASOS info, and promotion ‘consultation’

Email sent to members on Monday 12th January

Dear members,

Welcome back, we hope you have had a restful festive season to gain some strength. And strength we will need for the tasks ahead. In this email, we want to update you on our first dispute resolution meeting with management on 9 January as well as provide further information re management’s request to provide information on ASOS and the pause to promotions.

Report from first dispute meeting

Following your overwhelming support for launching a new dispute, we have now held the first dispute meeting with the University. We expect to receive more information this week regarding the timetable for the restructure. As soon as we have this, we will share it with members.

Alongside this, we are continuing our work on preparing the indicative ballot to start on 19 January as part of the new dispute. Further information on this will follow shortly. While there is benefit in a newly framed dispute, it is also evident from our first resolution meeting that the continued threat of industrial action will be necessary to move matters forward. So far, management has rejected all our demands outright.

Reporting of ASOS

We are aware that the University of Nottingham intranet contains a form for staff to report any Action Short of a Strike (ASOS) they have participated in. We are currently seeking further clarification, as it is not yet clear exactly how the University intends to treat ASOS or what actions they will take.

If you are considering confirming participation in ASOS to the University, we strongly advise that before completing the form you:

• Ask your manager what they believe the potential impact of your actions will be, and what deductions (if any) may be made.

• Speak to your local union representative for advice.

We will update members once we have received clarification from the University. Further guidance on ASOS is also available on our website.

Promotion ‘consultation’

As we are sure you have seen, the University has taken the decision to pause the promotion process in order to ‘consult’ with the Unions about whether it should run this year while they develop their restructuring plans. We were not told of this in advance of the pause, and we made it clear that we opposed the move. We have since had two meetings to discuss it and have two more to come before the end of the consultation period on the 10th of February.

Thanks to all of you impacted by this who have submitted your feedback on the proposal, seeing it all anonymised today was very powerful and showed not just how much anger and disappointment there is, but also how united people are in their feelings. We are exploring collective ways to push back against this beyond the formal meetings, so please be in touch with your rep or the branch if you are keen to contribute.

In solidarity,

Your branch committee