Words louder than action

Queen Mary, University of London welcomes the University and College Union's decision to cancel its strike and to join other trade unions in accepting our standing invitation to help review the current appraisal scheme.

Queen Mary already had dates in the diary with them, so we're pleased that good sense has prevailed. However, no concessions were necessary to get to this point and none was given. Queen Mary was not swayed in any way by the UCU's unnecessary proposed action and the offer to talk has been on the table for some time. We're pleased that they have accepted it.

We see appraisal as about both the development of Queen Mary and the learning and development of individual colleagues.

On the matter of setting standards and expectations, that is clearly Queen Mary's responsibility. We think it's simply our duty, as employers, to be as clear as we can with colleagues about expectations wherever we can. Where we have them in place already, they are not exceptional or onerous.

Our only interest is in ensuring Queen Mary's continued success in pre-eminent knowledge creation and dissemination.

We want our processes to contribute to supporting our colleagues in reaching excellence for both themselves and Queen Mary. We believe that the trade unions can play a strong role in helping to achieve those objectives. We look forward to continuing our work with the trade unions to build on the progress we've made so far.

Chris Pearson, Director of human resources, Queen Mary, University of London