LECTURERS suing Oxford University for its policy of zero-hours contracts have compared the issues with the Post Office data system.

Playwright Alice Jolly and fellow tutor at Oxford, Rebecca Abrams, were both lecturers on the university's creative writing course - which is currently being studied by actress and Harry Potter star Emma Watson.

The women this week took their claims to an employment tribunal, suing the Chancellors, Masters and Scholars of Oxford University for breach of contract and unfair dismissal.

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Ms Jolly, 58 , and Ms Abrams, 61,  claim the university treated them as gig-economy workers, keeping them on insecure casual contracts that lasted for 15 years - until they were abruptly discontinued in August 2022 after the pair had made a formal complaint to the university.

Employment tribunal judge Rupert Read heard this on Tuesday afternoon (January 16) from Dr Alison MacDonald, who is in charge of academic courses at the Oxford University's Department for Continuing Educating and a witness on behalf of the University of Oxford.

Oxford Mail: Alice Jolly and Rebecca Abrams Alice Jolly and Rebecca Abrams (Image: Agency)

She told the tribunal the bulk of the hours for which the tutors are paid are processed through an IT system called Redpot, which generates the payments due to tutors based on the number of hours and the pay rates entered into the system by admins.

The university introduced the system in 2022, partly in response to recurrent complaints from tutoring staff that their pay did not reflect the amount of hours that they had worked.

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Outside of the tribunal hearing Ms Abrams, who lives in Oxford, claimed that the Redpot IT system was ‘hugely unreliable’.

She said: "It's like the Post Office data system - wrong! There are constant errors and underpayments."

A colleague of Ms Abrams and Ms Jolly who had attended the hearing in support of the claimants said it was common knowledge among both teaching and administrative staff at the University of Oxford that the Redpot IT system often makes mistakes.

The woman, who preferred to remain anonymous, said: "There is quite of lot of room for error in the way that Redpot works.

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"The admin can put in the wrong amount of hours for a specific tutor, the rates are not corrected or updated regularly, and this is often the case - and the result is just a sum of money which is not broken down, and so difficult to understand for the payee."

Ms Abrams is expecting to start teaching students from the creative writing course, including actress Emma Watson, next week.

The tribunal continues this week.