UCU has submitted a claim to end the gender pay gap at the university of Leeds. You can see the full claim at http://www.leedsucu.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2018/09/Gender_Pay_Claim.pdf … continue reading
The USS joint expert panel has published its report this afternoon. The joint expert panel was set up by UCU and Universities UK to try to establish a common understanding about the health of the USS pension scheme because UCU believed the proposal to end the defined-benefit pension scheme was based on a flawed evaluation. The report has been welcomed by both UCU national officers and Universities UK which represents the employers, as a basis for resuming talks on the pension scheme. Link to national UCU response We’ll publish a local response once UCU committee members have had a chance to read and digest the full report. … continue reading
The strike ballot opened 30 August and will close Friday 19 October. The union’s national and local committees are both urging members to vote YES for both strike action and action short of a strike up to and including a marking and assessment boycott. To strike we will need to get the 50 percent turnout required by the Tories’ anti-strike law, while the law forbids us from using methods which would make that easier such as secure online voting or workplace ballot boxes. So union reps and members will be reminding everyone to vote throughout this period to make sure we’re not prevented by a biased law from taking action if members want to. Please make sure the details on your My UCU account are up to date. If you haven’t received your ballot paper please check My UCU to see which address you asked it to be sent to. If you haven’t received it there or you can’t get to that address please follow this link to request a replacement ballot paper. Keep an eye on leedsucu.org.uk/pay and @leedsucu on Twitter for the latest updates. Please tell us when you’ve voted We’re emailing all @leedsucu members eligible to vote … continue reading
UCU is consulting members in a formal ballot about whether UCU should support there being a referendum on the Brexit deal. The UCU website has some guest posts with arguments on different aspects of the arguments for and against at ucu.org.uk/brexit Please vote, as with will help … continue reading
The new UCU branch committee for the 2018-2019 academic year takes office from 1 August. Thanks to everyone who served on the committee for the last year, especially those of you who haven’t stood for re-election, who have done a great deal to help UCU members over many years. Members who were on the committee last year but aren’t this year are Andy Stafford, Charles Umney, Gavin Reid, Jill Edwards, Kyle Griffith, Simon Hewitt, Stephen Lax and Steven French. We’re welcoming new members to the committee: Alan Roe, Andi Rylands, Chloe Wallace, Dima Barakat Chami, Lata Naranaswamy, Laura Loyola Hernandez, Peter Tennant and Rachel Walls. The full list of members elected to the committee for this academic year is at leedsucu.org.uk/committee-members-2018-2019 The full list of department representatives, including postgraduate reps, anticasualisation reps and workload reps, is at leedsucu.org.uk/about-us/departmental-representatives. There are still some departments without a UCU rep – email ucu@leeds.ac.uk if you would like to nominate a colleague to be a UCU rep or if you’d like to do it yourself. … continue reading