By the time UCEA had implemented the unagreed August 2020 pay freeze, UCU had shifted its campaigning focus to the 2021–22 pay negotiations, which on a normal schedule would determine pay levels for the academic year beginning in August 2021. In March 2021 UCU and other campus unions submitted a claim seeking "a pay uplift of £2,500 on all pay points","Higher Education Joint Union's Claim 2021/22" ([26 March 2021]). "tackling intersectional pay inequality, dealing with excessive workloads, stress and mental health linked to COVID-19, and addressing wide spread precarious contracts"."HE negotiations 2021-22". The claim also developed the Union's position on casualisation by calling for postgraduate researchers to be employed to teach on contracts more like fixed-term, part-time contracts, with associated benefits such as sick pay, than like zero-hours contracts.Simon Baker, "Treat postgraduate researchers as staff, union tells universities", Times Higher Education (1 July 2021).Jack Grove, "Is it a good idea to treat postgraduate researchers as staff?", Times Higher Education (13 July 2021).
