The University and College Union (UCU) may be forced to abandon its marking and assessment boycott without securing a deal as time is running out to ballot its members on whether to extend industrial action.
Under the UK’s trade union laws, UCU’s current six-month mandate that allows it to call strikes and other action such as the boycott expires at the end of September.
In order to extend it, the union must organise a postal ballot for members – overseen by the software company Civica – and secure a yes vote with more than half its membership participating.
The union has twice won a mandate to take action over pay and working conditions in the past year; in October 2022 – when 81 per cent of members across 145 institutions voted yes on a 58 per cent turnout – and again in April, which saw 86 per cent vote yes on a turnout of 56 per cent.
