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Category Archives: Annual leave

Annual leave update

Posted on 21 August 2020 by editor125 September 2020

Text of email sent to branch members by branch secretary Tim Goodall on 21 August 2020 Management at the University of Leeds continue to be unnecessarily harsh about annual leave – saying that the normal carry forward arrangements can only happen in ‘exceptional circumstances’ this year (up to 5 days is usual custom and practice). We believe this is contrary to law – the government’s Working Time (Coronavirus) (Amendment) Regulations 2020 state that unused leave can be carried into the next 2 leave years where the impact of coronavirus means that it has not been reasonably practicable to take it in the leave year “as a result of the effects of coronavirus (including on the worker, the employer or the wider economy or society)”. The recent announcement that staff who are obliged to quarantine after holidays abroad and can’t work from home are liable to have to use holiday from next year or unpaid leave (see https://coronavirus.leeds.ac.uk/wp-content/uploads/sites/108/2020/07/Travel-overseas-for-personal-or-recreational-reasons-all-staff-email-sent-30-July-2020.docx) is also unfair and unacceptable. We know that many of you are understandably angry about these edicts, particularly when they add to the stress of work and personal situations which are already difficult. We cannot understand why our management fails to be more … continue reading

Posted in Annual leave

Carrying annual leave

Posted on 16 July 2020 by Alan Smith16 July 2020

We’ve had several members contact us with concerns about messages they have received from managers related to annual leave.  UCU raised these matters most strongly with HR and a clarification has now been issued to managers, but we’re still receiving examples of erroneous emails being sent by managers.  While the UCU officers agree people should generally take their leave during the year (and in many cases the university should reduce our workloads to allow us to take our leave), it is quite normal to be allowed to carry 5 days. It does need to be agreed by the head of school or service but members should expect a good reason if there is an objection; there should not be an unreasonable objection. The policy for academic and academic-related (professional and managerial) staff is: Unused leave entitlement may not normally be carried over from one year to another except that up to one week’s leave (pro-rata) may be carried forward for up to 3 months after the end of the leave year by agreement with the Dean of Faculty/Head of School. (Policy downloadable from the page on academic and academic related (professional and managerial) staff annual leave entitlement) HR managers have recently been … continue reading

Posted in Annual leave

Minutes of general meeting 28 April 2020

Posted on 15 May 2020 by Alan Smith15 May 2020

In the event of difference between the web version and the minutes agreed at the branch general meeting 14 May, the latter is the correct version. (Formatting is the most likely difference.) General meeting Tuesday 28 April 2020, 1pm – 2pmVideo meeting Minutes Chaired by branch president Ben Plumpton Agreed to restrict speeches to 3 minutes for movers and 2 for debate. Minutes of the previous meetings 7 November 2019 EGM. Minutes agreed. 22 January 2020 EGM. Minutes agreed. 2 March general meeting. Minutes agreed. Local update Update on local discussions with university senior management. We are meeting with HR regularly. We’re concerned about how frequently we’re being informed about decisions rather than being consulted on them. We’re not being involved in the decisions of the university executive group (UEG) – we’re being frozen out of decisions about how the university proceeds. Fixed term contracts is a priority – we’ve asked for extensions for all staff. The university made a minor extension to the end of May for most but we are trying to impress upon them the urgency of extensions for all staff as soon as possible particularly while the job market is frozen. There has been confirmation about … continue reading

Posted in Annual leave, Anticasualisation, Campaigns, Covid19, Equality, Gender pay gap, General Meetings, LGBT+, Minutes, Pay, Pensions

Carrying over annual leave

Posted on 7 April 2020 by Alan Smith7 April 2020

UCU reps asked for staff to be allowed to carry over more than the usual 5 days of annual leave into the next annual leave year if they would find it difficult to use their annual leave during the lockdown, to help us recover from this crisis period. This has been refused and we are told we must still take our annual leave during the year to 30th September. If you had a holiday planned and you now want to cancel your leave because the holiday has been cancelled, and work from home instead, you should discuss this with your line manager in the usual way. If you are part of the ‘critical activity team’ needed on campus, it might be difficult for you to take time off and therefore it might be possible to carry more annual leave over to next year.

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Posted in Annual leave, Covid19

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 | 13 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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