↓
 

University of Leeds UCU

  • Home
  • Join UCU
  • My UCU
  • Support
  • About UCU
    • Joining the union
    • Branch office contacts
    • Committee members 2020-2021
    • Department representatives
    • Working groups and action group
    • Calendar
    • Local rules
    • Standing for election to the UCU committee
    • Useful resources and agreements
    • Other campus unions
    • Making UCU branch general meetings work better
    • Dashboard
    • Mobile Dashboard
  • Campaigns
    • Anti-casualisation
    • Gender pay gap
    • Pensions
    • Casualisation, equal pay, workload and fair pay negotiations
    • Workloads
    • Migrant members
  • Calendar
join today online or by phone 0333 207 0719

Author Archives: Alan Smith

Post navigation

<< 1 2 … 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 … 60 61 >>

Why are Leeds University academic and related staff taking industrial action?

Posted on 13 July 2017 by Alan Smith5 October 2017

UCU members at the University of Leeds are taking industrial action as part of a dispute with senior management about changes to the university statutes, in effect an imposed change to their contracts. We took strike action on 22 June and we are continuing to take action short of a strike by working to contract. More strikes are expected in the autumn if the university won’t return to the negotiating table and take the concerns of staff seriously. Leeds University management want to be able to dismiss staff for undefined reasons. This could potentially include: ‘Third party’ pressure from corporations or government if they don’t like research findings Sacking employees where there is a personality difference Would students want to be taught by people who are afraid to lose their jobs if they step out of line? Our trade union, UCU, aims to stop this and other worrying changes to staff terms and conditions. We have tried to resolve this dispute by negotiation, including through ACAS (the independent conciliation service), but management remain intransigent. Some background University statutes set out grounds for dismissing staff – currently redundancy, capability, ill health, or conduct. Our management want to add an undefined catch-all … continue reading

Posted in Dispute, Statutes

Simple link for writing to your MP about the statutes dispute

Posted on 12 July 2017 by Alan Smith1 August 2017

UCU has produced an online email-your-MP page for the University of Leeds statutes dispute, to make it easier to write to your MP. It’s at: ucu.org.uk/contactyourLeedsMP You can customise the letter to highlight your own concerns. If you could visit your MP’s surgery in person that would be great, especially if you live in the Leeds area. Please contact ucu@leeds.ac.uk as we may be able to arrange a group visit.

continue reading
Posted in Dispute, Statutes

Please contact your MP about the statutes dispute

Posted on 7 July 2017 by Alan Smith1 August 2017

We’re suggesting members contact their Members of Parliament, either by email, letter or by going along to a one of the MP’s surgeries (which will be advertised on their websites). It can be daunting to start from scratch with such a letter, so here’s a template letter you can use if you wish or use as a starting point: Dear [your MP] I am writing as your constituent to raise concerns about proposed new terms and conditions for staff at the University of Leeds, where I work. My trade union, the University and College Union, is in dispute with the university over this, yet the university management is seeking to push through changes at Privy Council imminently, so I am asking you to make some representations on my behalf. Terms and conditions for academic and related staff at the university are governed by the university’s statutes. The management wants to ‘modernise’ these statutes – as I see it, to make it easier for staff to be dismissed. I am concerned about three changes in particular: Removal of a medically qualified chair for panels deciding ill health dismissals Removal of an independent legally qualified chair for most dismissal appeals Addition of ‘some … continue reading

Posted in Dispute, Statutes

Did you find an elephant in a room on the strike day?

Posted on 23 June 2017 by Alan Smith1 August 2017

Whenever the security of academic jobs is at stake the elephant in the room is academic freedom. For the 22 June strike day we hid elephants in rooms across the campus, with a chocolate prize for anyone who found one and brought it back to the picket line. Well done to the students and members of one of unions that weren’t on strike who came to collect their prize! If you found an elephant after the picket had finished we’re afraid you’ve missed the chocolate (it was yummy). Please take good care of your elephant and please sign the petition against detrimental changes to the university statute on dismissing staff. http://speakout.web.ucu.org.uk/university-of-leeds-statutes-no-sackers-charter/

continue reading
Posted in Dispute, Statutes

Strike day, Thursday 22 June

Posted on 22 June 2017 by Alan Smith1 August 2017

Today we are on strike in dispute with the University of Leeds management over changes to the university statute on dismissing academic and academic-related (professional and managerial) staff. We call on all members to respect the democratic decision of the membership and to strike today. Don’t go into work. Don’t cross a picket line. Don’t work from home. We are calling on university senior management to come back to the negotiating table and try to find a resolution. We can’t accept a catch-all dismissal rule but we have made clear throughout that we are prepared to work with them to draw up fair procedures for dealing with any areas they believe aren’t covered by the current dismissal rules.

continue reading
Posted in Dispute, Statutes

Post navigation

<< 1 2 … 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 … 60 61 >>

Jeremy Toner

Posted on 20 January 2021 by Alan Smith20 January 2021

With great sadness I’m writing to inform you of the awful news that Jeremy Toner has died of cancer after a short illness. Jeremy was our first openly-gay local president, then our treasurer; he was one of the activists who transformed Leeds AUT/UCU into a branch that actively fought back against managerialism, marketisation, casualisation and injustice. Above all, Jeremy was a truly kind and considerate person, loved and respected by many and he will be greatly missed. In sadness, Ben PlumptonBranch PresidentUCU University of Leeds Branch We have opened this post for comments in case you wish to leave a message or memory. (There will be a delay before your comment appears.)

continue reading
Posted in Branch | 14 Replies

Formal dispute lodged over Medicine and Biological Sciences potential redundancies

Posted on 18 January 2021 by Alan Smith18 January 2021

UCU has formally lodged a dispute with University of Leeds over potential redundancies in the Faculty of Biological Sciences and the School of Medicine. Full text of the dispute letter: Declaration of dispute Professor Simone BuitendijkVice ChancellorThe University of LeedsLS2 9JT 15th January 2021 Dear Professor Buitendijk Re: Declaration of dispute – Risk of Potential Redundancies in the School of Medicine & Faculty of Biological Sciences I wrote to you on 7th January registering a failure to agree on the following issue(s): Failure to rule out the need for compulsory redundancies. Failure to provide full financial transparency and disclosure regarding the need for financial cuts in the School of Medicine and Faculty of Biological Sciences and opportunities to consult about alternative strategies that could protect jobs. Failure to provide information about roles/areas that may be in scope of redundancy and the proposals that are being considered for the future work and operation of the two areas.   In order to resolve this failure to Agree, UCU are requesting the following immediate action: That the University commits to no compulsory redundancies That after the outcomes of the current VLS exercise are communicated no further action is taken by the University during the … continue reading

Posted in Dispute information, Redundancy

Petition against redundancies in Biological Sciences and Medicine

Posted on 13 January 2021 by Alan Smith18 January 2021

Please sign and share this petition link with your contacts in Leeds and beyond. Anyone can sign – universities are for the whole community. University of Leeds senior management are insisting on reducing staff to cut costs in the School of Medicine and the Faculty of Biological Sciences, and they refuse to rule out compulsory redundancies. UCU reps have argued the widespread belief that the university’s opaque funding allocation model under-funds many STEM* subjects which are more expensive to research and teach, and called upon the senior management to be more open about the funding model and improve its approach, to properly fund all subjects instead of cutting jobs. Update: UCU has sent a formal letter to the VC to register a dispute with the university. You can read the full text of the letter here. More details (*Science, technology, engineering and mathematics)

continue reading
Posted in Redundancy

No to all job cuts at the university!

Posted on 13 January 2021 by Alan Smith13 January 2021

Email sent to branch members 11 January 2021 As you are probably aware, the university started a voluntary redundancy scheme in the Faculty of Biological Science and the School of Medicine last semester and the deadline for applications to the scheme has now passed.  For more on the history of this, see the leeds.ucu.org.uk article: http://www.leedsucu.org.uk/vls-in-fbs-and-medicine/    Here is what has happened since we wrote that article:  Our regional UCU officer wrote to the VC to ask that compulsory redundancies are ruled out  The VC replied to say that she was unable to rule out compulsory redundancies   Our regional UCU officer replied with a ‘failure to agree letter’ saying we will not accept compulsory redundancies and asking to pause the consideration of any further voluntary redundancies until we are out of the current COVID crisis and until we’ve been properly consulted with full financial information.  If an assurance cannot be given by the end of Monday, the regional officer will send a letter, entering into dispute with the university.  We’re planning a press release to make public that the university is planning to get rid of staff in some of the areas that might be considered most essential at this time.    We’ve also … continue reading

Posted in Redundancy

Supporting schoolteachers by reducing university workloads

Posted on 12 January 2021 by Alan Smith12 January 2021

The UCU branch committee sends our thanks and support to schoolteachers in the National Education Union whose refusal to work in dangerous conditions forced the government to move more quickly in moving most school teaching online. Their action has made us all more safe. The government has left continuing confusion about who should be working and who should be able to send their children to school, and what should happen when people who shouldn’t send their children to school are required to work. As a result, school attendance has been much higher than during the first lockdown meaning that teachers are less safe and the curb on the spread of the virus will be less effective, placing all our communities at further risk. It is vital that university staff with school-age children can play our part in keeping school attendance low. Therefore, the UCU committee has written to the vice-chancellor and spoken to senior HR managers about the need to reduce workloads and extend the availability of special leave for staff whose role is not critical for the health or wellbeing of students, staff or society. We have impressed upon HR that it is not enough to say, “Do what … continue reading

Posted in Covid19, Solidarity, Workload
Four years free membership for research students who teach
Sexual harassment helpline 0800 138 8724

Campaign updates

  • Anti-casualisation
  • Workloads
  • Pensions
  • Gender pay gap
  • UCU national website

Latest updates

  • Jeremy Toner
  • Formal dispute lodged over Medicine and Biological Sciences potential redundancies
  • Petition against redundancies in Biological Sciences and Medicine
  • No to all job cuts at the university!
  • Supporting schoolteachers by reducing university workloads

Updates by subject

  • Branch
    • Administration
    • Dispute information
    • Elections
    • General Meetings
    • Getting involved
    • Members emails
    • Minutes
    • Newsletter
    • Open meetings and events
    • Solidarity
  • Campaigns
    • Anticasualisation
    • Equality
      • Black members / BME
      • Disability
      • Gender equality
      • Gender pay gap
      • LGBT+
      • Mental health
      • Migrant members
    • Government
    • HE green paper
    • Health and safety
      • Covid19
    • Opposing privatisation
    • Pay
    • Pensions
    • Postgraduate
    • Prevent
    • University operational issues
      • Annual leave
      • Capability
      • Conduct and disciplinary
      • Grievances
      • Lecture capture
      • Working from home
    • Wider campaigning
      • Brexit
      • Environment
      • Migration and refugees
    • Workload
  • Consultations and negotiations
    • Car parking
    • Feedback
    • IT
    • Recruitment
    • Redundancy
    • REF
    • Statutes
  • Dispute
    • Dispute advice
  • Joining UCU
  • Support
    • Sexual harassment
  • UCU democracy
  • UCU levy
  • Uncategorized
  • University Democracy
  • Website archive
    • University of the Year

Search this site

Follow @leedsucu
find us on Facebook
Four years' free membership for postgraduate research students who teach
Four years' free membership for research students who teach - join the academic trade union
Four years' free membership for research students who teach - join the academic trade union

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries feed
  • Comments feed
  • WordPress.org
©2021 - - Weaver Xtreme Theme
↑