By Gavin Mackintosh-
Two lecturers at Oxford University who have been staff at the one of Britain’s most respected institutions of higher learning for 15 years, have sued the university, alleging unfair dismissal and the refusal t0 provide holiday pay.
The two aggrieved lecturers argue that the University of Oxford has failed to pay them adequately for holidays, because under the terms of their contract they did not receive holiday pay.
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The lecturers were employed on fixed-term “personal services” contracts to teach on Oxford’s creative writing course for 15 years, but the academics claim their contract were not renewed in 2022 due to victimization arising from past campaigns against the university.
The pair, Alice Jolly and Rebecca Abrams,(pictured) alleged that the university has bene cheating the vast majority of its staff by offering them unfair contracts.
The academics who filed their claim with Watford Employment Tribunal on Wednesday 16 November, maintain that their employment status at the University of Oxford was clearly that of employees and not as personal service providers as a result of the level of control exercised over them by the University and the manner in which they were dealt with during the course of their employment.
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Lambasting the university and branding them one of the worst offenders in terms of uberisation of higher education training, the academics said a majority of the university’s staff are on similar precarious contracts.
“We are bringing this action on behalf of hundreds of Oxford University tutors who, like us, are employed on legally questionable casual contracts. Oxford is one of the worst offenders when it comes to the Uberisation of higher education teaching, with nearly 70% of its staff on precarious contracts. This is bad for teachers and bad for students,” Abrams said in a statement.
Jolly further attacked the university for allegedly using writers’ CVs to market their creative writing courses, stating that often they “will only offer zero-hours contracts which offer no job security and sometimes pay as little as £25 an hour” – which doesn’t factor in preparation time.
Ryan Bradshaw, a solicitor at Leigh Day, who is representing the two lecturers said it would offer more appropriate contracts to the lecturers in a letter to the Society of Authors in April 2022, but two months later Jolly and Abrams’s contracts were not renewed.
The pair believe that their four years of trade union campaigning may have contributed to this decision, leading them to claim unfair dismissal.
Solicitor Bradshaw said: “The use of contracts that misrepresent the employment relationship is bad enough but in this case that has been compounded by the disgraceful treatment of two lecturers who stood up for their rights and the rights of their fellow workers.
It is regrettable that a venerable institution like Oxford University has behaved in this manner. It is even more regrettable that they have refused to remedy the situation that they have created. We have been left with no option but to pursue the matter through the courts.”
The case is backed by the litigation fund Law for Change, which funds lawsuits with social implications. Its co-founder, David Graham, said: “The continuing erosion of lecturers’ employment rights in higher education institutions is an area we are as a fund particularly concerned about,” and that he hoped the case would help other lecturers hold their employers to account.
A claim was filed with Watford employment tribunal on 16 November, and the university’s response is expected in January, with resolution hoped to take place in the summer.
“This is the gig economy, at Oxford University. It’s pure precarity and it means the imbalance of power relationship between employer and employee is huge and can lead to all kinds of abuses,” said Bradshaw.
“These are people who would ordinarily be perceived as white-collar, privileged workers – they’re highly educated, really respected authors and writers, and they’re being forced to accept terms and conditions that undermine their legal rights. It’s astonishing – it shows the extent to which employers will seek to exploit workers wherever they can. You just don’t expect to see it in this environment, but here it is.”
Bradshaw said that universities are one of the main sectors that operate a gig economy, and he believed it was because of their “increased financialisation and marketisation”, which had resulted in their becoming profit-seeking businesses run by top-down management.
Lecturers have participated in a series of strikes over insecure contracts and low pay and conditions in recent years.
In November, the University and College Union (UCU) said that record numbers of its members took part in picket lines at more than 150 higher education institutions.
Abrams, a former columnist on the Daily Telegraph and radio producer for the BBC, is a best selling authour of both fiction and none fiction books and well respected in academic and media circles.
Oxford University were contacted to comment on the allegation that hundreds of its employees are on precarious contracts, but said it could not comment due to court proceedings.
The elite university was urged to at least comment on claims that a majority of its staff are on precarious contracts and the allegations it had vicitimized the aggrieved lecturers due to their campaigns against its procedures.
Court proceedings do not prevent organisations from defending serious allegation against them.
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