Standing up for fair pay for Academics at the University of Oxford

Status: Won

Clients: Rebecca Abrams, Alice Jolly

“This is an issue that extends across UK higher education. Casualisation is a race to the bottom – bad for teachers, bad for students, and bad for universities. I hope this ruling will encourage an urgently needed reboot in the way universities treat the teachers on whom they rely.”

Rebecca Abrams

The Issue

Rebecca and Alice, who have taught on the Masters in Creative Writing at the Department for Continuing Education at the University of Oxford for over 15 years, have always been employed on personal service contracts.  

They claimed that the terms of their contracts mean that they are employees. They argued that as a result of their personal services contract they had been denied a number of important workplace rights.  

Legal route for challenge

Alice and Rebecca argued their case is about the employment status of lecturers who have been hired on personal service contracts. They maintained that their status at the University of Oxford was clearly that of employees and not as personal service providers or workers.

Alice and Rebecca, who the judgment notes “demonstrate a level of dedication and care for students that all educators should aspire to”, had long argued that their contracts were a sham. In April 2022 the university said in a letter to the Society of Authors (SoA) that it would offer the academics more appropriate contracts. Two months later Alice and Rebecca’s contracts to supervise students on the MSt Creative Writing Years 2 course were not renewed. Both will seek a judgment that the failure to renew these contracts was an act of victimisation as result of their whistleblowing and trade union activity. 


The Outcome

In the ruling, Employment Judge R Read noted the power imbalance between the precariously employed tutors and the University of Oxford. Additionally, the judgment described how the tutors are not simply guest lecturers or speakers and they are held out to be full members of staff (with biographies) in the student handbook.   

The judge ruled that they were engaged on fixed-term contracts of employment and should be classed as employees. 

A future hearing will be scheduled to assess the implications of this ruling. 

Alice and Rebecca are supported in their claims by Law for Change and are represented by Leigh Day employment solicitor Ryan Bradshaw who instructed Richard O’Keefe from Old Square Chambers. They acknowledge the support of UCU and thank the Society of Authors for making representations on their behalf.

Read more in The Guardian.