Queen Mary University of London has been implementing punitive deductions policies against anyone who dares to participate in industrial action. The Senior Executive Team has ordered weeks and months of pay deductions (five months of deductions in some cases) from staff who withdrew mere hours or days of work in seeking workplace improvements. We are challenging these measures through a range of activities, including litigation support work and community legal education. This page brings together our legal work in its many forms.
Blogposts
Latest blogposts on our collective legal work
UCU SMT’s undermining of union policy challenged by QMUCU
The branch voted on further actions in raising concerns about UCU senior management’s tactics in their dispute.
Letter to UCU Senior Management
QMUCU Branch Committee writes to UCU Senior Management demanding an end to threats of disproportionate pay deductions.
Lawyering for workers’ rights
invitation to an event on trade unions and the law on 7 May, 5-7pm in Mile End.
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Employment Tribunals
Some of our members have been successful in getting ASOS deductions to Employment Tribunal.
- Provisional hearing on 26 September 2024, focusing on concerns about blacklisting and trade union activity.
- Provisional hearing in March 2025, about joining two claims about blacklisting and trade union activity.
- Postponed hearing about the punitive ASOS deductions
Events
Our Legal Knowledge Project will be organising events alongside organising ourselves.
upcoming events
- Wednesday 7 May 2025, 5-7pm: Lawyering for workers’ rights: an evening of reflections on lawyering for workers’ rights co-hosted by QMUCU, QMUNISON, and the Centre for Law and Society in a Global Context. Sign up for in-person or online attendance here.
past events
- We held a cross-branch meeting on legal organising for freedom from detriment on 25 February 2025.
- We watched together the UK Supreme Court in action in the Mercer hearing on Tuesday 12th December in the BLOC cinema in Arts One (QMUL Mile End Campus). The Mercer case concerns a care worker and Unison member who was suspended from work and denied overtime while organising for industrial action over pay for sleep-in shifts at care homes. She is challenging the suspension on the basis that it is a prohibited detriment for trade union activities under s 146 of TULCRA 1992, and a breach of her Art 11 ECHR right to assemble and take action as a trade union member. As well as being a really important case about trade union rights for all, it’s also relevant to possible legal arguments in our ongoing and future cases against punitive ASOS deductions.
Contact us
If you have further questions around the QMUCU Legal Knowledge project, feel free to contact us via email, or fill in the form below.
qmucu.org 