Senior management’s dismissive response to concerns about unnecessary face to face teaching and services

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

The UCU committee wrote to the deputy vice-chancellor for student education on 18 September expressing the serious concerns of UCU members about the pressure, in some cases last-minute, from the university executive group to plan in more face to face teaching than staff in schools felt was necessary in the circumstances. The letter asked that the requirements on Schools to provide face to face teaching and student support be lifted, and that the University adopt a policy of all teaching and student support being provided online over Semester 1 at least, unless there is no alternative.

We understand that a clarification we received from the HR team is intended as a response to our letter. It emphasises that management’s approach has been consistent that teaching will be “Hybrid: Large groups online; small groups & practicals [face to face] where safe and practicable” (23 April). The response notes the university executive group ‘affirmation’ in August that the “offer is hybrid, [the] guarantee is online.”

And continues:

The implementation of this University-wide approach has been determined within each Faculty
This confirms the University position and that it has been consistent throughout.
The communications are on-going and an open house Q&A about delivery planning is being arranged. It would be much appreciated if, where relevant, you would relay this information to anyone who is raising concerns with you and suggest that they raise any specific concerns directly with the relevant Dean who will be best placed to respond to them as they will have been involved in the above decision-making process.

The UCU committee raised serious concerns about the unnecessary risk to the health of staff, students and the wider public of this insistence on bringing staff and students to the university for classes even when those delivering the modules don’t think it is necessary or the right approach pedagogically in the circumstances. The situation with the pandemic has changed significantly recently, with increases in infection rates both nationally and locally, so the teaching approach needs to be adapted accordingly. But the reverse has happened, with disciplines who had planned wholly online delivery being told they must provide face to face activities as well (optional ones, because many students themselves will not be able to attend campus).

We have seen what has happened in the US when campuses re-opened, and more recently in Scotland whose term started about two weeks before ours. We are not being “emotional” when we insist that the health and safety of our staff, students, and everyone they come into contact with should be the top priority. This is rational, and it is based on empirical data. We believe that minimising the number of people on campus is the best way to reduce the risk for everyone, including essential workers and staff teaching or supporting activities which can only be done face to face.

But the response from the senior management of the university seems to be that any fault lies in those who thought online teaching was the best approach for most modules – that they ought to have listened more closely to the “blended learning” message from the university executive group.

Members of the UCU committee are extremely disappointed that, instead of addressing widespread concerns about the safety of staff, students and the wider community, the response from management is that any concerned individuals should speak to their faculty deans.

The UCU committee is organising another emergency general meeting to collectively decide our next steps if the university executive group continues to put the health of our university community at unnecessary risk as the pandemic second wave escalates.

In the meantime, any Leeds UCU members with specific health and safety concerns about being required to work on campus should contact the branch for support – email ucu@leeds.ac.uk.

See further details of the Leeds UCU position on face to face activity on campus.

Face to face activity on campus

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

UCU’s position, both nationally and locally, is that all teaching in the coming term should be online (except for very limited cases where this is not feasible), and that all other university work that can be done online should continue online. Keeping the numbers on campus to an absolute minimum is the best way to avoid spreading the virus around the university community and beyond. Our General Meeting on 15th September overwhelmingly agreed on this, see link below to the wording of the motions passed on this issue.

We know many of you are worried and stressed about being required to return to campus, and we are hearing many concerns from departmental reps and individual members where school plans for wholly online teaching are being altered, at the behest of senior management, to include some face to face teaching and other events. Since some students will be unable to attend campus to attend these newly-proposed face to face activities, they are by definition non-essential.  Requiring staff to come onto campus is particularly worrying now, given increases in the COVID-19 infection rate both nationally and locally. And we are concerned that requirements to work on campus will fall disproportionally on casualised staff, who are often in a difficult position financially, and also that this may have equalities impacts (because of for example the higher infection rates and mortality rates in BAME communities, which means higher risks for those staff).

Your branch officers, together with the other campus trade unions, have been working hard over the summer trying to improve the university’s support to staff during lockdown and to address health and safety issues. The unions have been meeting with management two or three times a week and doing our best to negotiate and influence the university’s approach. Our input on Health and Safety, aiming to make things as safe as possible for anyone who needs to return to campus and for students (including building checks, room occupancy limits, social distancing, face covering arrangements etc) has been welcomed so far and improvements made as a result. However, we believe that the situation has now changed materially, and staff, students, our families and friends, and the wider local community need to be protected as fully as possible. Hence our position that everything that can be done online must now be done online, until at least Christmas.

At the start of the COVID outbreak, we in Leeds UCU were trying to persuade our management to lock down earlier, as were union branches elsewhere. Sadly that didn’t happen, which across the country probably contributed to the scale of the pandemic. We feel it’s desperately important, both locally and nationally, to avoid universities contributing to a surge in cases, and therefore it is crucial to stay online wherever possible.

We’ll keep you in touch more regularly in this fast changing situation. We may need an Emergency General Meeting to consider potentially raising a dispute on this issue – look out for further emails soon.

More information:

I know many of you are working incredibly hard at the moment, and often in very difficult situations. You are important, and together our contributions to the university are important – remember what we said in our strike placards and rallies:  we are the university! Please look after yourself as best you can, and if you have problems then do ask the union for help.  Please also continue to support each other across roles, contract types and diverse backgrounds – together we are strong!  We need to use that collective strength to protect everyone.

In solidarity,

Ben

Ben Plumpton
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
University of Leeds UCU President

Letter to senior management about unnecessary face to face teaching and student services during covid-19 pandemic

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by 
Email sent 2.15pm Friday 18 September 2020 on behalf of UCU University of Leeds Branch to the University of Leeds deputy vice-chancellor for student education, copied to the university secretary and to the director of Human Resources.

Dear [deputy vice-chancellor]

We are writing to you in relation to the increasing pressure which is being experienced by staff to provide face to face teaching on campus over this academic year. Over the summer, staff involved in teaching and student support have worked incredibly hard to produce teaching materials, and design teaching and student support and community building processes that operate online in order to provide student education in safe circumstances. A number of Schools and Faculties had had plans approved to provide student education wholly online in Semester 1, because of their judgment that teaching and student support can not only be effectively provided online but, in many cases, can be better provided online given social distancing rules that will impact how we work face to face. We now understand that those Schools are being required to provide face to face activity where none was previously planned, requiring changes in planning, staff to teach face to face and in many cases provision to be less good than it would have been online given the requirements of social distancing.

We are deeply concerned about this. Any face to face activity constitutes a risk of COVID-19 spread; measures can be taken to mitigate that risk, but the only way that University activity can be COVID safe is by conducting it online. The fact that some Schools had not planned for face to face activity means that such activity cannot reasonably be considered as necessary. Consequently, the University is asking staff and students to run the unnecessary risk of contracting and spreading COVID-19, impacting not only our University communities but the wider communities of which we are a part. Given the rising transmission rates both locally and nationally, this is irresponsible. In addition, we note that staff have been asked at the last minute to develop new activities which may or may not go ahead depending on the local and national situation. This creates huge uncertainty for both students and staff, and exacerbates the workload problem which we have spoken to you about on a number of occasions.

Whilst we all wish that we were able to start the new academic year as we usually would, that is simply not possible. Our position both nationally and, following a General Meeting on 15th September, of the local branch, is that there should be no face to face teaching or student support at least over Semester 1, unless there is genuinely no other alternative (such as some practical classes). The amount of work that staff have put in to developing an online student experience over the summer has been exceptional, particularly given difficult working conditions, and the University should be confident, and speak confidently, about the quality of provision we can offer, whilst protecting the health and safety of our wider community. We request, therefore, that the requirements on Schools to provide face to face teaching and student support be lifted, and that the University adopt a policy of all teaching and student support being provided online over Semester 1 at least, unless there is no alternative. We further request a review of the situation in December 2020 with a view to considering provision in Semester 2, and that the campus trades unions be fully involved in that review.

With best wishes

Chloe Wallace
Vice-president, on behalf of Leeds University UCU branch committee

Motions passed at general meeting 15 September

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

At a general meeting on 15 September 2020 members voted to support the following motions:

Emergency motion 1 – On-line teaching: health & safety and jobs

This meeting notes:

  1. the call by our GS and iSAGE for all teaching to be held online
  2. UCU’s five tests
  3. pressures on all staff for face-to-face teaching
  4. that iSAGE/WHO believe social distancing, test, track and isolate and PPE are central in controlling pandemics
  5. a potential second wave of Covid-19 with high R-rates in Yorkshire/Humberside
  6. lives, health, safety and jobs should take priority over the financial ‘bottom line’
  7. The University sits on over £70 million of reserves which must be utilised if necessary to meet demands during this period.

This meeting requests:

Leeds UCU to campaign for and negotiate agreements on:

  1. no face-to-face teaching and student support in at least the first semester of 2020/21 and continued into the second semester (to be reviewed in December 2020) other than where there are no other options, e.g. some practical work
  2. all on-line teaching to be accessible
  3. provision of IT and safe quiet study spaces for all students and staff as required
  4. continuing with high levels of support and training for staff in online teaching, and ensuring that workload allocation models and other means of allocating work recognise the time needed to undertake this training
  5. no staff, casualised or permanent, to risk losing jobs if they do not deliver face-to-face teaching or support
  6. additional government funding to cover shortfalls and additional costs.

Emergency motion 3 – Local organising on return to campus in the context of Covid-19

This branch notes:

  • That the rates of Covid contagion are rising steadily across the Europe, the UK and Leeds
  • That there are currently problems and delays accessing tests and test results
  • That at this rate  of contagion and without mass testing, the WHO predicts a rise in the deaths in October and November 2020
  • That health and safety guidance has been developed on our campus in dialogue with the unions on improving existing measures, but inconsitency of approach as emerged across faculties, with some opting almost entirely for online teaching and others for a hybrid approach
  • That institutional pressure to offer some face to face teaching on the basis of a commercial argument affects different colleagues differently with regard to their teaching
  • That students’ experience will also be unequal as a result, especially for those unable to come back to campus
  • That the ‘Return to campus’ survey does not include individual health and safety measures
  • That local H&S reps are not consistently consulted on local arrangements for reopening building “in good time” as required by the law
  • That organising and negotiating in favour of online teaching have provided arguments to successfully retain fixed term staff in some faculties

This branch resolves:

  • that nobody should be forced to deliver teaching and other non-essential activities on campus in semester 1, and that this should be reviewed in semester 2.
  • that the union has clear messages and support especially for colleagues most isolated and precarious who may be coerced to teaching
  • to develop out our own conditions for f2f teaching at the branch level (e.g. conditions attached to the local r-number; room cleaning between classes; wearing of masks; availability of testing)
  • that the branch faciliates ongoing dialogue between local reps and the committee that is effective in influencing negotiation with management
  • that the branch actively contributes to the UCU developing of a national strategy such as walk outs or sick outs in the case COVID-19 rates increase and the University campus continues with the current plans of face to face teaching delivery

Emergency motion 2 – to submit to UCU special higher education sector conference 30 September

On-line teaching: health & safety and jobs

HESC notes:

  1. the call by our GS and iSAGE for all teaching to be held online
  2. UCU’s five tests
  3. pressures on all staff for face-to-face teaching
  4. that iSAGE/WHO believe social distancing, test, track and isolate and PPE are central in controlling pandemics
  5. a potential second wave of Covid-19

HESC requests:

branches and the national union campaign for and negotiate agreements on:

  1. no face-to-face teaching and student support in 2020/21 (reviewed in December) other than where there are no other options, e.g. some practical work
  2. all on-line teaching to be accessible
  3. provision of IT and safe quiet study spaces for all students and staff as required
  4. support and training for staff in online teaching
  5. no staff, casualised or permanent, to risk losing jobs if they do not teach face-to-face
  6. additional government funding to cover shortfalls and additional costs.

(150 words)

General meeting will decide branch response to covid-19 increase

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

Emergency motions have been submitted to today’s general meeting in light of the increased covid-19 levels nationally and locally.

The motions suggest how we should respond as a branch locally, and how the union should respond nationally.

The meeting, which is for all members of the UCU University of Leeds branch, is 1pm – 2pm Tuesday 15 September.

Meeting link and updated agenda including the emergency motions is in an email sent to all members by branch administrator Alan Smith today.

[Edited 11.44 15 September as more than one motion now received]