A long-running and increasingly bitter internal feud is hampering the UK¡¯s biggest higher education union¡¯s ability to respond to an ever-escalating jobs crisis, with disgruntled staff claiming they are being ¡°pushed out¡± and ¡°silenced¡±.

Staff more used to planning strikes and rallies on university campuses will on 1 May amass outside the University and College Union¡¯s own office in Camden, capping off six weeks of industrial action that it is claimed has seen more than half of staff walk out.

The action, which officially ends on 6 May, looked unlikely to break the deadlock, however, in a dispute between UCU staff who are members of the union Unite and the UCU¡¯s senior management team,?which dates back as far as 2023.

A UCU Unite spokesperson told 51³Ô¹Ï that progress during the strike has ¡°been slow or non-existent¡±.

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¡°UCU staff are at breaking point due to their mistreatment by management and an organisational crisis which has long impacted the levels of support that UCU staff are able to provide,¡± they said.

Some see the Unite branch as too far left and unwilling to compromise in its demands for higher pay and an end to a ¡°dysfunctional and toxic¡± environment, and that its accusations of workplace racism are unfounded.

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A UCU spokesperson said it had received complaints about some Unite members¡¯ conduct and many of its staff had taken the decision to leave Unite since the dispute began, adding ¡°we are raising these concerns through the appropriate processes¡±.

¡°This supports our view that a minority have been spreading damaging and upsetting untruths as part of attempts to continue a dispute even though enough progress has been achieved to warrant no longer remaining in this dispute,¡± the spokesperson added.

But staff and former staff ¨C as well as many of the union¡¯s own members ¨C fear the culture at head office goes deeper than the row, claiming it is toxic and fundamentally broken.

There are fears that the issues are limiting UCU¡¯s role to effectively tackle the funding and redundancy crisis facing higher education. Its former treasurer David Harvie said: ¡°There¡¯s an enormous crisis [facing higher education], and the union, as it is at the moment, is not capable of attacking that.¡±

A major concern focuses on the union¡¯s tactics when dealing with staff who raise concerns, which, in the eyes of those affected, mirror some of the worst behaviour of university leaders.

The union¡¯s use of confidentiality clauses and settlement agreements for staff it wants to ¡°push out¡±, for example, is said to be ¡°an open secret¡± and evidence of ¡°silencing¡± alternative viewpoints, according to sources who spoke to 51³Ô¹Ï on the condition on anonymity.

Some of those THE has spoken to claimed to have been offered settlements themselves which featured confidentiality clauses, while others say that it is well established among the union for staff members to ¡°disappear¡± after falling from favour with the senior management team.

"People were given the choice between staying and being harassed, intimidated and set impossible tasks and being undermined repeatedly, or leave with a payment and move on,¡± one said.

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¡°There¡¯s a real sort of feeling of a clamping down on what we¡¯re allowed to say,¡± said another. The clauses are said to be similar to non-disclosure agreements (NDAs) that the union has often campaigned against.

In 2022, it said, of the use of NDAs by universities in sexual harassment cases: ¡°These ¡®agreements¡¯ have no place in a modern society and are used to silence and intimidate survivors.¡± At a speech at UCU¡¯s congress in 2019, the then-incoming general secretary Jo Grady a motion she said would ¡°clamp down on non-disclosure agreements¡±.

The UCU spokesperson said it did not use NDAs. ¡°Any agreements with departing staff include warranties by both employer and employee to avoid criticism and derogatory comments about the other; this is not a non-disclosure agreement.¡±

On settlements, they added that these were used in ¡°situations where an employer and employee mutually agree on the basis to bring their employment relationship to an end as the best way forward¡±, adding there had been two such agreements arranged since September 2023.

Unite has also complained that out-of-office emails referencing the strike were amended to remove any mention of the industrial action. Staff were allegedly that ¡°failure to comply¡± with a UCU-approved out-of-office template ¡°would be dealt with under UCU¡¯s disciplinary policy¡±.

Staff said this showed a further hypocrisy within the union, as it goes against the advice it previously issued to its academic members when they took part in strikes. ¡°There isn¡¯t the transparency that we are calling for amongst the employers,¡± one said.

Internet archives show that the webpage during the 2023 UCU Rising campaign suggested members change out-of-office replies to say they are on strike to ¡°defend our right to a fair pension/fair pay, secure contracts and equality at work¡±. It has since been deleted.

The UCU spokesperson said: ¡°For privacy and GDPR reasons, there is no requirement for staff to confirm or provide detail in out of office messages that they are on leave, away because they are unwell, or absent due to strike action or any other reason.¡±

Ultimately staff fear the issues are affecting the union¡¯s wider reputation, both among its members and with other trade unions. ¡°The UCU¡¯s reputation has been on a downward trend for a good few years now. It¡¯s not well respected across the trade union movement. Particularly among staff who work across different trade unions, this stuff is an open secret, really,¡± one said.

UCU said it was committed to continuous improvement and has already launched a culture review ¡°to allow every member of staff to have their say about what is working well and what could be better, and we look forward to receiving the recommendations¡±.

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juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com