Aditya Chakrabortty’s article shed welcome light on some of the horrendous industrial relations practices in the higher education sector (The miserly tale of how a university took its staff’s wages – and the public paid the price, 22 December). Particularly welcome was his exposure of the punitive deductions from salary for taking part in lawful industrial action at institutions such as Queen Mary University of London. In some cases, lecturers have received no pay at all in their monthly pay packets for failing to mark only a handful of exam scripts over a few hours, pursuing a collectively agreed grievance.
No one disputes that striking employees lose the right to pay for every day they strike. Deducting pay in full for taking action short of strike for a few hours is different. Not only is it morally indefensible, there is also a strong case that it is unlawful as a matter of human rights law to deduct pay like that. While cases in the 1980s appear to establish that employers have such a right as a matter of common law/contract, the advent of the Human Rights Act, and its protection for union rights in article 11, has changed the legal landscape quite considerably.
