In February, we celebrated a ‘victory for workers rights’ after Rebecca Abrams and Alice Jolly succeeded in their six-year dispute over working conditions with Oxford University, undertaken with support from the Society of Authors (SoA). The judge’s verdict was that they should have been classed as employees, a decision we cited as having potential ‘serious implications for other authors working on similar precarious contracts.’
We are disappointed to hear that Oxford University has since removed all teaching work from the pair on the MSt in Creative Writing course which they have both taught for 16 years. Abrams is also being asked to accept termination of all her remaining teaching at Oxford.
Abrams and Jolly have been seeking compensation for the work and income they have lost and for their related future losses and will be taking part in judicial mediation on 8 November as a last chance to get a settlement and to be spared the further expense and distress of the case going to a final five-day hearing in July 2025.
This is not an isolated case but is part of a climate of precarious contracts that places unfair pressure on authors to fight for their rights. But as Abrams told the Guardian in February, the casualisation of contracts is not only bad for authors – it is ‘bad for teachers, bad for students, and bad for universities.’
Chief Executive of the SoA, Anna Ganley, said:
We are dismayed to see that despite Alice and Rebecca’s success in court earlier this year, Oxford University has not agreed to pay them reasonable compensation. Author incomes are under extraordinary pressure and for many of our members, like Alice and Rebecca, income from teaching is essential for sustaining their careers as writers. Following the court’s judgment in their favour, after 16 years, Alice and Rebecca’s teaching work on the MSt in Creative Writing has been removed and it is difficult not to view this as anything other than unjust and punitive. We urge the university to settle this matter satisfactorily by providing our members with compensation for the income they have lost, and to end the protracted stress and distress this situation continues to cause.
Indeed, how can removing Alice and Rebecca from the course be anything other than punitive? Would it be possible to tell us which person or part of the University we fellow authors can protest to?
You can protest to the VC of Oxford University Irene Tracey. The more people who openly express their dismay the more likely Oxford is to listen, and to stop treating us as problems to be forced to go away and instead start treating us as human beings who’ve done nothing wrong and are being victimised.
Wow! This goes on and on, doesn’t it. Good luck to Alice and Rebecca, and I’m so sorry that any of us has to be treated this way. Thanks to them and SoA for taking it this far.