You asked
The Universities and Colleges Employers Association maintains that "All employers collate information about the numbers of their employees who have taken strike action and are obliged to supply these data to the Office for National Statistics. UCEA has assisted in this process by collating these data, as it has with previous sector-level disputes."
Source: https://www.ucea.ac.uk/news-releases/7jan20/
Would you please release the following:
1. the numbers of employees who took strike action that UCEA submitted regarding the 8 days of strike action over pay and equality and/or USS pensions which was called by the University and College Union (UCU) between 25 November and 4 December 2019.
2. the numbers of employees who took strike action that UCEA submitted regarding the 14 days of strike action over USS pensions which was called by the University and College Union (UCU) between 22 February and 16 March 2018 -- but with variation in the dates in the case of King's, Queen Mary, Edinburgh and Stirling. See here for more information about the specific strike action to which I'm referring: https://www.ucu.org.uk/14-strike-dates
We said
Thank you for your request. We are unable to provide the information you have requested as when we collect data our guidance states that "Employers are not identified in any of our published data, and all of the figures released are expressed solely in terms of the industry concerned on a national or a regional basis." This guarantee of confidentiality is made clear to contributors who respond to the Labour Disputes survey.
We are also bound by the Statistics and Registration Service Act (SRSA) 2007; Section 39 of the SRSA makes it an offence to disclose information held by the Statistics Board that would identify an individual or a body corporate. As disclosure of this information is prohibited by law, s.44 of the Freedom of Information Act 2000 (FOIA) applies. S.44 is an absolute exemption and no consideration of the public interest test needs to be applied.
We are therefore unable to provide information regarding the numbers of employees taking strike action as supplied by the Universities and Colleges Employers Association.