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UCU’s new general secretary is coming to visit

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UCU general secretary Jo Grady UCU general secretary Jo Grady is coming to University of Leeds on Wednesday 2 October. An open meeting is scheduled for 1pm-2pm, Mechanical Engineering Lecture Theatre B, and she will also meet with our anti-casualisation working group*. Please put this in your diary as it is an exciting opportunity to engage with, influence and take inspiration from our new leader. If you would like to read more about Jo, this interview recently featured in The Guardian. *If you would like to join the anti-casualisation working group please email ucu@leeds.ac.uk Directions and accessibility Mechanical Engineering Lecture Theatre B (2.37), Mechanical Engineering Building, University of Leeds, Woodhouse Lane, Leeds, LS2 9JT. Google Maps: https://maps.app.goo.gl/MzhoXGHKXPpkMzBj9 Directions to Mechanical Engineering Building Facing away from Parkinson steps, turn left, go straight up Woodhouse Lane past two pedestrian crossings. Mechanical Engineering is on your left. Mechanical Engineering Building Directions to Lecture Theatre B Go through the main door of the building, up the stairs to the second floor, turn either left or right through the double doors, Lecture Theatre B is at the top of the small flight of stairs. Accessibility Accessibility: Height Adjustable Lectern, Wheelchair access (Students), Assistive Listening System, Wheelchair … continue reading

Who should be the UCU department rep / UCU anti-casualisation rep / UCU postgrad rep where you work?

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In preparation for the next academic year the UCU committee is looking to fill department rep vacancies, including anti-casualisation reps, postgraduate reps and workload reps, and also for some more members to be trained to support colleagues with individual casework. The roles are: Department rep To raise local issues affecting members with the UCU officers/committee and to feed back to members, and to welcome new staff and let them know about UCU. (Monthly meetings but not required to attend them all.) Department anti-casualisation rep To raise local issues affecting members on casualised contracts (such as fixed-term or hourly paid) with the UCU branch’s anti-casualisation working group and to work with that group to help tackle casualisation across the university. Department postgraduate rep To raise local issues affecting postgraduate with the branch committee’s postgraduate rep and the anti-casualisation working group. Department workload rep To raise local workload issues at the branch workloads working group and to work with that group to help tackle excessive workloads across the university Caseworker To support and discuss options with members having problems at work. Training and mentoring provided. This isn’t a department role – caseworkers don’t usually represent members in their own school or service. … continue reading

Heads of School recruitment and the spurious use of ‘equality and inclusion’

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Many of you have expressed your discontent at the recent blanket policy of Head of School positions automatically going out to external advertisement, and in some cases the use of headhunters in the recruitment process. The committee shares these concerns and the strength of feeling against this policy. Our wider opposition to this policy and motions passed by the branch on the issue are laid out here. In this email, we wish to draw attention to a particularly pernicious element of management’s justification for the imposition of this policy: the spurious deployment of the equality and inclusion agenda. In negotiations on this issue representatives of the university executive group have argued that the blanket policy of external recruitment was justified because it would bring about a greater diversity in senior management. While in some specific areas of the university the external recruitment of Heads of Schools may have led to greater diversity in the senior management team, the notion that a blanket policy will achieve this aim is not credible. In many disciplines the wider pool of likely candidates within the sector is highly skewed towards white men. In addition, in some schools external recruitment represents a marked change in … continue reading

USS update

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USS caught misrepresenting the views of the pensions regulator + the pensions regulator itself is being investigated by a Parliamentary committee for its handling of whistleblowing from a USS trustee Our pension scheme is under unnecessary threat.  The 2018 pension strikes successfully challenged concerted efforts to fundamentally undermine our healthy defined benefit pension scheme and transfer it into a substandard defined contribution scheme. Our actions changed the debate, and the report of the Joint Expert Panel (JEP) vindicated UCU’s position.  UCU and the employers’ body UUK signed up to the JEP’s recommendations. This was a positive route forwards and out of dispute. Since then, the USS executive has put forward three ‘options’ to proceed, all of which fall short of the JEP recommendations and all of which would cost members more to get less in their retirement (see our recent [newsletter]).  USS has also been caught out misrepresenting the Pension Regulator’s position and neglecting to correct it while a consultation on these substandard options was being presented to employers. The employers’ body UUK will soon decide which option (if at all) it formally supports. All indications so far are such that UCU sadly expects our employers to side with USS, and … continue reading