Category Archives: Consultations and negotiations

Latest news from Leeds UCU

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Text of email sent to branch members by branch president Ben Plumpton on 20 August 2020 Dear members, I hope you are coping OK in these difficult times and that you and your families and friends are well.  There’s a lot to update you on  – so read on!  Also look out for a separate email with news about annual leave.   Contents:1. Redundancies and ending of fixed term contracts2. Health and safety update3. New university organisational change and redundancy policies4. Return to campus questionnaire5. Working from home costs6. Could you offer to become a caseworker?7. UCU levy8. Elections to Senate9. Fund the Future10. Next Vice President of UCU11. What next on our Four Fights dispute?12. UCU webinars, and how to get involved 1. Redundancies and ending of fixed term contracts Management told us they were intending to make 28 redundancies of staff employed for more than 4 years by the end of October, and a further 10 by the end of February.  Some of these have now been averted after extensions and redeployments, but we are urgently asking for discussions with management about the individuals remaining under threat in order to avoid redundancies.  In addition large numbers of staff on … continue reading

Lecture capture policy: update

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Email to members from branch vice president Chloe Wallace, 9 June 2020 Dear members I hope that you and yours are well – it is for many of us a particularly challenging time of a particularly challenging year, and I hope that you are getting through it. I am writing to update you on the situation in relation to the University’s proposed new Audio-Visual (lecture capture) policy. Thank you to all those who took the time to give us feedback on the proposals: if you have not already seen it, the summary of feedback is here: Thank you also to those who attended our General Meeting on the topic. You can find the text of the motion passed at that meeting here:  In response to our concerns, the university has made some changes to the draft policy. There is a welcome change on wording around performance management, and some movement on the issue of ownership. However, many areas of concern remain unchanged.  You may have seen in a general staff email that the revised policy is now out for consultation amongst the wider staff – the link is here. We’d encourage all members to contribute to that staff wide consultation. … continue reading

Consultation on changes to lecture capture policy

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As members will be aware, the university is proposing to introduce a new policy on audio-video recording  (lecture capture) and has consulted UCU on its contents. Many thanks to those members who responded to our request for feedback: you can find a summary of feedback here. As you can see, a range of views were expressed and the feedback was really helpful to help us understand the wider implications of the policy changes and the attitudes of members towards it. Many thanks also to those who attended our General Meeting on 12th May. We took all the feedback we received, the motion that was passed at the General Meeting along with advice from national head office, and compiled a document to send to the university – you will probably need to read in alongside the original proposed draft. Broadly speaking, our position is that we support drives towards inclusive education and particularly appropriate support for disabled students, and we recognise that many staff consider lecture capture to be a useful part of their pedagogy. However, we have significant concerns about the misuse of lecture capture for performance management or for replacing staff, and we know that many staff have pedagogic … continue reading

Lecture capture policy: summary of feedback

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Summary of informal member feedback on the senior management proposed changes to the lecture capture policy The general policy on recording and the loss of the automatic right to opt out Significant unease about new point 6: using lecture capture material for performance management. This was by far the most common point made in this section. The caveat ‘routinely’ does not reassure staff and the belief that they are under surveillance through lecture capture is making staff far less comfortable with being recorded. A concern frequently raised is that of student complaints that are unreasonable and/or politically motivated, and the implications for academic freedom. Staff warn that this provision could have an inhibiting effect, making them more likely to lecture from a script and less likely to teach in a more interactive, relaxed and personal manner There is some concern about bullet point 5 and the ability to make recordings available outside of the learning and teaching context in which they were made. This causes anxiety about using captured lectures inappropriately, to replace absent staff, striking staff or staff who have left. Staff believe that lectures are and should be captured for the purpose of teaching a particular course of … continue reading

Detailed response on proposed changes to lecture capture policy

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This is the detailed response sent from the branch to University of Leeds senior management at the start of the consultation on the proposed changes by management to the agreed lecture capture policy. (See also the motion passed by the branch at the start of the consultation process.) Proposed new audio-video recording policy Position of Leeds University UCU General The current policy, negotiated with UCU, is generally popular and successful. It maintains a right to opt-out, subject to the existence of a counterveilling legal obligation (e.g. to provide a reasonable adjustment for disabled students) and would therefore seem, if applied properly, to comply with the University’s legal obligations under the Equality Act. If 82% of lectures are currently recorded, that means that over 82% of staff are currently prepared in principle to record their lectures (as some staff record some but not all lectures). Our members’ consultation indicated that more staff would be prepared to record lectures if firmer assurances could be given about use of those lectures outside of their immediate context (i.e. as part of a module or programme of study, in a particular year), if staff were given more control over the use of their lectures such … continue reading