Category Archives: Dispute

Report from UCU higher education sector conferences 7 November

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Last Wednesday our elected Leeds delegates had a double dose of special Higher Education Sector Conferences (HESCs) which had been called to decide the next steps for UCU in two higher education disputes: Quick summary 1. The Pay and Equality dispute (Wednesday morning) It was decided to have a UK-wide re-ballot in the new year, highlighting the casualisation, equality, and workload aspects of the dispute alongside pay.  See more detailed Pay & Equality report below. 2. The Pensions dispute (specifically what next after the JEP report on USS) (Wednesday afternoon) After the Joint Expert Panel Report and recent revelations about USS valuation methods, the conference advised UCU to negotiate for no increase in our USS contributions and and end to so-called “de-risking”. See more detailed Pensions dispute report below. The Higher Education Committee of UCU and our union negotiators will take forward these decisions and advice. 1. Pay and Equality dispute The first HESC, on the Pay and Equality dispute, was quorate, which means that its decisions complement, confirm, or supersede those taken by the Higher Education Committee (HEC) the previous week.  Decisions taken at the meeting (including amendments) can be downloaded via this link: https://www.ucu.org.uk/media/9939/HESC-1118-pay-decisions/doc/UCU9057Nov18_-_Decisions.doc All the original motion texts can be seen … continue reading

Minutes of general meeting 19 October 2018

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There may be formatting errors in online versions of minutes because of complex embedded list formatting Friday 19 October 2018, 12pm – 1pmMichael Sadler building LG15 Minutes of EGM 12 June 2018 Item not taken (out of time) 2. Pay and equality dispute Industrial action ballot results – pay and equality – will be out on Monday. We may need to have another emergency general meeting before the next ordinary general meeting 10 December. 3. USS pension dispute update, including motions 1and 2 University of Leeds highlighted as extreme institution in how they responded to USS consultations as far back in 2014. Motion 1 amended to remove “to spine point 49 of the nationally agreed framework salary scale (£56,950 in 2017/18) and to increase each year in line with pay for that spine point” and replace with “in line with inflation.” Motion to submit to UCU higher education special conference on USS now reads: Conference notes that: the Joint Expert Panel report on the USS valuation largely vindicates UCU’s arguments that there is no substantial deficitUniversities UK is currently consulting employers about their response to the reportthere will soon be another round of Joint Negotiating Committee negotiations about potential changes … continue reading

USS Pension: developments + rapid response tool (90 sec possible!) for the USS Consultation (email)

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Email from branch president Vicky Blake to branch members 24 October 2018 Dear Members, The situation with our USS pension has moved rapidly since our open meeting with Mark Taylor-Batty and Sam Marsh (a member of the USS Joint negotiating committee) two weeks ago. It is really vital that we all fill in responses to the USS consultation. Today’s Internal Comms email from the university does note that Sam Marsh has demonstrated that – without changing our contributions and still using the prudent measures that USS apply – the scheme will be in surplus in the time frame applied in valuations (http://sam-marsh.staff.shef.ac.uk/uss/docs/UoS_USS_discussion_document.pdf). However, the university communication also links to USS’s inadequate response to Dr Marsh’s findings, which contains inaccuracies and, remarkably, fails to use the words ‘test 1’, the mechanism that was at the heart of Dr Marsh’s critique (see the bottom of this email for links to responses to USS’s latest communication). The USS consultation with members of the scheme is still open, and we now have a recommended set of responses for you to apply. To access those responses and the link to the consultation, please go here: https://medium.com/ussbriefs/resile-and-resubmit-uss-consultation-response-template-4809945fb6bc. It’s really quick to do, and obviously even better if you can tweak and personalise responses. In a rush? Here’s a 90 second K Pop video guide to filling in the consultation ASAP: https://twitter.com/USSbriefs/status/1054388848493506560 Brilliant further reading:  Sam Marsh’s response to the … continue reading

Pay + Equality: what next locally + nationally

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Text of email from Branch President Vicky Blake Dear Members, Thank you to everyone who voted in the Pay and Equality Ballot, and all who helped us to get the vote out. As you will see from Matt Waddup’s email that has just gone out to members nationally, our historically high turnout in this postal ballot on pay and equality was not quite enough to break the 50% threshold set by the (anti-)Trade Union Act 2016. In this email: • Our result • What next in the pay and equality dispute • Local campaigning and action on gender pay and casualisation Our result Prior to 2016, we would be celebrating this turnout, and this result. At Leeds, members voted strongly for strike action (69.8%) and action short of a strike (77.7%). This government’s anti-trade union legislation has denied us our right to withdraw our labour despite our turnout of 49.2%. We only needed 15 more votes to break the threshold. (You may wish to note that, while advocating the 50% threshold’s introduction, Boris Johnson was in post as London Mayor having achieved… 31.8% turnout in his election.) What next? We remain in dispute over the joint unions’ pay and equality claim. … continue reading

Why you really do need to vote – from a reluctant striker

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Chloe and colleagues outside the School of Law during the USS pension strike A personal post from new UCU committee member Chloe Wallace When I look back over our strike action in February and March, I have a lot of good memories: standing with friends old and new; the support of my colleagues and students; the feeling of empowerment and hope for the future. But all in all, it wasn’t much fun. Quite apart from the snow, the rain, and the pay deduction, there was disruption to the job I love and the students I’m committed to, anxiety in such an uncertain situation, and an ever-present feeling of guilt. When it was over, I breathed a sigh of relief; back to normal at least for a while.  So my heart sank when it became clear that we would have to ballot on striking yet again for a fairer deal on equality, casualization and pay. We, individually and collectively, have too much to do, and university staff and students don’t deserve more disruption after what we dealt with this year. We talked about fairness, equality and casualisation on the pickets and on #striketwitter throughout and beyond the action. We know they matter and that … continue reading