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Category Archives: Anticasualisation

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Decisions of general meeting 8 December 2020

Posted on 8 December 2020 by Alan Smith8 December 2020

Appointments to committee Equality officer: Lorraine Youds Anti-casualisation officers: Xanthe Whittaker and Joanne Armitage (role share) Committee member (lead on climate and the ecological emergency): Jennifer Fletcher The following motions were agreed: Motion 1: opposing redundancies at Leeds University Leeds UCU: Notes: Faculty of Biological Sciences management communication which hinted at compulsory redundancies if not ‘enough’ staff leave through the voluntary redundancy scheme. that UCU branches (eg. Heriot Watt, Brighton, Northumbria Universities) have recently won ballots for industrial action, despite the obstacles to campaigning during Covid-19 restrictions. Re-affirms our opposition to all redundancies. urges all members to sign the Leeds UCU petition opposing the ‘voluntary’ redundancies in the Faculty of Biological Sciences and the School of Medicine. agrees to: demand a commitment from management that no compulsory redundancies will be proposed or made in FBS or SoM. call a dispute if management will not rule out compulsory redundancies. trigger the steps for an industrial action ballot if management pursues compulsory redundancies. Motion amended as above text and carried without opposition. Motion 2: Response to Funding Extensions for PGRs The Leeds UCU Branch notes that: The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted many post-graduate research students (PGRs) because of their reduced ability … continue reading

Posted in Anticasualisation, Branch, Dispute, Environment, General Meetings, IT, Opposing privatisation, Postgraduate, Redundancy, UCU democracy

UCU levy, and job losses

Posted on 26 June 2020 by Alan Smith26 June 2020

Text of email from branch president Ben Plumpton to members on 26 June 2020 Dear members, UCU levy You will have seen the email today from Jo Grady, our General Secretary, about UCU taking a levy from members of £15 (in two instalments) for the Fighting Fund, so that the union can continue to support members taking industrial action. Obviously it’s important that the union can help members in this way: many members in our branch have been supported by the Fighting Fund over the recent strikes, and the union has prioritised low-paid and casualised staff in disbursing strike pay.  However, your branch committee is concerned about the lack of consultation on this, and that it wasn’t possible, according to the UCU rule book, to make this a progressive levy dependent on salary. We know many hourly paid, part time and low paid members will find this levy difficult to afford. (Note: members on the full free membership are excluded from the levy).  Some members have already offered to contribute to cover the levy for low paid members of this branch (thank you!), and we would be glad to hear from any other members who feel able to do the same. … continue reading

Posted in Anticasualisation, UCU levy

Defending casualised staff in HE

Posted on 4 June 2020 by Alan Smith4 June 2020

Text of email from branch president Ben Plumpton sent 3 June 2020 Dear members, At our branch General Meeting on 28th April we passed an important motion about supporting casualised staff (copied in full below) which included calling on you to support the CoronaContracts campaign. Please sign the national open letter at https://tinyurl.com/coronacontract – thank you.  Locally, your branch officers and committee are pressing our management on many of these issues, particularly the renewal of contracts and the impact on migrant workers, and our caseworkers are supporting individual members too. The CoronaContracts campaign have written an open letter to the union’s General Secretary and newly elected National Executive Committee, asking them to hold a mass online meeting of UCU members, both casual and permanent, to discuss urgent action around casualisation. The letter is headed “If you don’t do it, we will” and you can view and sign it at https://forms.gle/5FfShwDFB4HfC6vk9  CoronaContracts are holding a mass meeting tomorrow (Thursday 4th June) on Zoom, at 6:30 pm, and I’d encourage you to join it if you possibly can.  The Zoom link is https://us02web.zoom.us/j/81863074335?pwd=RWNsaWNiY1FOQ0s5WjlmSXZ0M1pLQT09  It is crucial at this time, when many universities are wanting to make savings on staff costs, that we as union members stand together in solidarity, … continue reading

Posted in Anticasualisation

Branch votes to reject latest ‘four fights’ offer

Posted on 22 May 2020 by Alan Smith22 May 2020

An emergency meeting of the branch was help today to establish the branch’s position on the employers’ offer on casualisation, equal pay, workloads and pay (the ‘four fights’ dispute) and on the latest developments in the USS pensions dispute. The meeting is to let our delegates know how to vote on our behalf at a meeting of branch delegates on Tuesday (26 May), ahead of the UCU higher education committee meeting on 27 May. (For more details see Your feedback on next-steps in the ‘Four Fights’ and USS disputes) No formal vote was taken on the USS pensions dispute, so our delegate will try to vote with the contributions made in mind. On the ‘four fights’ dispute, members passed the following motion: Motion 1 This branch rejects the latest ‘offer’ in the 4 fights dispute. We don’t believe that sufficient progress has been made on any of the key issues in the dispute in the light of the developing crisis in the sector. Accepting an ‘offer’ that does not give sufficient guarantees to women members on the gender pay gap, BAME members on the race pay gap and to our casualised staff and includes no movement on pay would be … continue reading

Posted in Anticasualisation, Black members / BME, Campaigns, Dispute, Equality, Gender equality, Gender pay gap, General Meetings, Pay, Pensions, Workload

Your feedback on next steps in the ‘Four Fights’ and USS disputes

Posted on 20 May 2020 by Alan Smith20 May 2020

Email sent to branch members 20 May 2020 I’m writing with some further information about the two disputes – the reports from the UCU negotiating teams.  Please read these if you possibly can before our emergency general meeting 1pm Friday where we will discuss the disputes and elect a delegate to take the branch views to a branch delegates meeting next week which will inform the union’s Higher Education Committee (HEC).  The HEC will then take a decision on what the union will do in each dispute, including whether to put the employers’ offer on the Four Fights to a membership ballot, and about balloting for further industrial action.  The current position is that the union will re-ballot on both disputes, starting at the end of June or as soon as practically possible thereafter, and ending in September.  HEC can decide to continue the ballots as planned or to cancel, postpone or otherwise alter them. Four Fights negotiators statement (please also read the Four Fights briefing emailed by Jo Grady) USS negotiators report (please also read the USS briefing emailed by Jo Grady) Our negotiators have worked incredibly hard for many months on both disputes and their statements are crucial to these discussions. Our industrial action … continue reading

Posted in Anticasualisation, Black members / BME, Gender equality, Gender pay gap, Pay, Pensions, Workload

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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.)

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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)

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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
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