No to all job cuts at the university!

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by 
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: 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 launched a petition – please sign and ask your colleagues at this and other universities to sign, plus alumni and anyone else with a connection to the university  
Stop redundancies at University of Leeds

While all this is happening, we’re also negotiating on our anti-casualisation claim and have made some progress in discussions with HR. See more detail on the claim  

here: http://www.leedsucu.org.uk/ucu-anti-casualisation-claim-submitted-to-university-of-leeds/ 

Across the university (for example via casework) and at every opportunity in our meetings with HR and senior management we’ve been fighting hard to persuade HR to renew as many fixed-term and fixed-funded contracts as possible and to provide us with more detailed information about which contracts are being considered for non-renewal and why.  We’ve made some progress as HR are now reviewing all fixed-term contracts longer than three years and, where there is no reasonable justification, transferring those staff on to permanent contracts.  We continue to push management at every opportunity that the university should not be ending anyone’s employment in the middle of a pandemic 

If you have been on a fixed-term contract for 3 years or more, contact your local HR officer to say you believe you should be made permanent, and ask the branch for a caseworker if there are any problems. 

Please do remember to sign the petition.  We’ll be in touch soon with any developments. 

Best wishes, 

Tim
UCU Branch Secretary, on behalf of UCU committee 

Supporting schoolteachers by reducing university workloads

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

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 you can,” or “Work when you can.” We need clear reductions in workloads to off-set the amount of childcare staff members will need to provide in their circumstances, so that those of us with childcare responsibilities are still able to achieve and excel within appropriate workloads.

Senior HR managers have indicated they also think most staff shouldn’t be classed as critical workers for the purposes of being able to send their children to school, because of the community responsibility of reducing the spread of the virus, and are considering UCU’s advice on dealing with workloads.

However, we are deeply concerned that University HR have rejected our request for a blanket extension of special leave provision. They have stated that staff should take special leave as necessary within the extended limit of ten days and if they need more than ten days they should talk to their head of school or service or local HR team and individual circumstances will be considered.

UCU University of Leeds branch joins with other unions in urging everyone to support primary and secondary school staff by not sending children to school if at all possible. We understand that some roles are genuinely critical to the health and wellbeing of students, staff, or society, but wherever possible staff must be supported to care for children at home, without detriment, in order to reduce the spread of the virus. If you have problems with your line manager or head of school or service not reducing your workload to enable you to do that, without working all hours to compensate, contact the UCU branch officers by email ucu@leeds.ac.uk.

New lockdown

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by 
Message from branch president Ben Plumpton sent to members Tuesday 5 January 2020

Happy New Year, and here’s hoping it is a better one than 2020…

I’m writing to let you know that Leeds UCU is working hard on your behalf related to the current lockdown and with regard to the seriousness of the increasing pandemic. In particular, we have asked the VC to:

  • Move everything possible (most teaching, research, support and administration) online again until Easter, i.e. going beyond the (current) Government guidance.  This would be the safest thing we could do for our students, our staff, and the wider community.  This university can do better than the government guidance, particularly considering how poor the government have been at taking on board scientific advice. And constantly changing arrangements are difficult for both students and staff. 
  • Review the university provision to support parents and carers, to be more radical and generous in what is on offer, not expecting staff to care full time and work full time, and recognising that it should be OK for carers to do fewer hours and fewer things that they would normally do. (Full detail of our email on this copied below the email to members). We know that many of you have felt a need to keep some carers’ leave in reserve, in case of worse situations, but unfortunately management have taken the fact that few people have ‘used up’ their carers leave to mean there isn’t a problem.  So we would encourage you, if you now have caring responsibilities as a result of school closures or any other issues, to make use of any remaining carers leave you have, and thereafter to speak with your line manager about further arrangements (see https://coronavirus.leeds.ac.uk/staff-advice/working-from-home/#balancing_caring_responsibilities) 

The campus trade unions are also meeting with Health and Safety this afternoon and with HR tomorrow.

We understand that the university’s Senior Management Team met this morning to take decisions on next steps.  We don’t know the full details of how the new national lockdown applies yet, for example what will happen about laboratories or libraries, but we are of course pushing for much improved safety.  The latest government guidance (as far as it goes) is here https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/949536/NationalLockdownGuidance.pdf  

If you aren’t sure what’s going on in your area, or if you are asked to come onto campus despite the lockdown, contact your line manager or head of school/service.  If you are concerned about their reply and need your union’s support, email ucu@leeds.ac.uk or contact your UCU department rep.

We’ll be writing again soon about what’s happening with FBS and Medicine redundancies, and also about our ongoing work on anti-casualisation.  We are planning an extra General Meeting soon, probably early in February, so keep an eye open for notification of that.

Please update your details in case we move to a ballot

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

Members voted in December to call a dispute if senior management won’t rule out compulsory redundancies in the Faculty of Biological Sciences and the School of Medicine. It’s important all of us in this branch check and update our membership details in case we move to a ballot.

Please check:

  • You have the right employer and workplace. If you have moved jobs it’s important we only ballot those of us who are employed by the University of Leeds.
  • Your home address and email address are up to date
  • Your home address is your ‘preferred address’ for mailing unless you’re confident you will be working on campus even in a full pandemic lockdown
  • Your membership type. If you do paid work for the university you should have full membership. If you’re a postgraduate student who does paid teaching* directly for the university that should normally be full free membership. (Full free membership is only for postgraduate students – if you’re no longer a student please upgrade to full paying membership.) If you’re a postgraduate student who doesn’t do any qualifying paid work you should choose student membership not full membership – you won’t be eligible to vote in the ballot. If you have finished working at the university and not yet started a new job you should choose unemployed membership (which is free, up to a year) or retired membership if appropriate.

If we move to a formal ballot we will need to remove from the ballot any of us who won’t be in work for the potential period of industrial action. We’ll email members about this, but if you know now that you won’t be doing any work for the university for the rest of this academic year you can let us know now by emailing ucu@leeds.ac.uk.

(*Postgraduate students who do non-teaching paid work for the university which would come under the academic or academic-related constituency may also be eligible for full free membership.)

Decisions of general meeting 8 December 2020

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

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 to perform meaningful research since the initial lock-down. While PGRs and their supervisors have made great efforts to perform useful work from home, this has not been effective for many projects. 
  • PGRs who in their final year, and are funded by UKRI, have been provided with funded extensions. PGRs in their earlier years of PhD study will not receive automatic additional funding, despite having lost the same research time as those in later years. For many, the lab closures and travel restrictions affecting fieldwork occurred at a more critical time, e.g., when data are being collected, and thereby having a bigger impact. To ask academics and students to ‘restructure projects’ is not an adequate response.
  • Self-funded PGRs requiring extensions, some of whom are international, are receiving no additional financial support from the University, or UKRI. The international students are paying substantial fees, and many have lost several months of access time to research laboratories.
  • PGRs feel unfairly treated by the University’s, and UKRI’s, COVID pandemic response, which is impacting their mental health. The effects of the unfunded extensions will have a disproportionate effect on PGRs from disadvantaged backgrounds.
  • PGRs with chronic illnesses or other circumstances such as shielding and caring responsibilities will have been negatively impacted by a greater extent.
  • The University benefits from many of these PGRs, because they contribute to many of the Research Excellence Framework (REF) submissions, contribute to teaching, and contribute to research impact of the University.
  • PGR students are the next generation of academics and are being disenfranchised before their research careers begin.  Acting on this issue will send out a message that PGRs are part of the academic community, who contribute to research and teaching, and are UCU members. This complements the national campaign for ‘PGRs as Staff’.

The UCU Leeds branch asks that:

To negotiate with the University to implement a financial package to enable PGRs to complete their research degrees. This should include a fair and transparent process to requesting funded extensions for all PGR students affected by COVID-19 lock-down.

That the branch raises this issue with NEC for a national campaign to ask that other Universities, and the UKRI, to reconsider their funding decisions for PGRs. Specifically, UKRI should consider allocating additional funding towards providing PGR extensions for all year groups affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.

An open letter is prepared by the branch and sent to the VC regarding this matter.

Motion amended as above text and carried without opposition.

Motion 3: campaigning for de-carbonising housing in Leeds

Background: This motion responds to a call by Regional Trades Council calling for union support to a programme of retrofitting of Leeds homes with energy efficiency measures, and for a collaboration between trades unions, the local authority, educators and others to expedite such a programme.

This branch notes:

  • That in 2019 our UCU Leeds University branch has declared a Climate Emergency arguing that we must rapidly eliminate the burning of fossil fuels in order to reverse the increase of global temperatures.
  • that the energy used for domestic heating and hot water accounts for around 20% of the UK’s greenhouse gas emissions, and that working from home can lead to higher costs from heating.
  • that great strides have been made in the development of renewable sources of energy for electricity generation in the form of wind, solar, tidal and geothermal energy.
  • that Estimates by the Parity Project suggest that getting all UK homes to an Energy Performance Certificate level C by 2030 would require 223,387 additional tradespeople immediately, rising to around 400,000 over the decade

This Branch believes

  • that our HE sector unions have a crucial role in promoting critical education on sustainability, and campaign for the organizational and economic change needed to avoid disastrous climate crisis.
  • that regardless of what energy source is used, the key to eliminating emissions from domestic heating and hot water essentially depend on capacity to reduce demand by retrofitting/upgrading all homes with insulation and other measures, to excellent standards of energy efficiency.
  • that an ambitious domestic energy efficiency programme would also create a large number of high quality skilled jobs- whose creation is a pressing concern, more than ever in the context of an economic recession resulting from the COVID pandemic.
  • that the government funding currently available for upgrading/retrofitting homes is a fraction of what is needed. The Green Homes Grant, worth a total of £2 billion, is a welcome step, but far more is needed.

The branch resolves

to join our Regional TUC Environmental committee’s call on local trades councils, trades unions, local authorities, education and training establishments (e.g. Leeds College of Building), as well as community organisations and retrofitting practitioners, to work together to enable whole house retrofits to be carried out within the region, in particular by:

  1. Urgently utilising Green Homes Grants and demanding their extension
  2. Seeking and campaigning for further financial methods of funding whole house retrofits.
  3. Ensuring that the skilled workforce is available and proper apprenticeships are provided using the facilities of the College of Building
  4. To join a meeting involving all the parties above at the earliest opportunity, to explore the detail of such a programme.

Motion carried without opposition.

Motion 4: Oppose management’s decision to scrap M and N Drives

Leeds University UCU:

  1. Notes:
    1. management’s decision to get rid of M and N Drives by December 2022.
    2. management’s instruction to staff that they are required to move all their files to Microsoft Office 365 cloud storage ie on OneDrive, Teams, or SharePoint.
    3. consultation with staff was not part of the decision making.
  2. Believes that:
    1. University in-house IT infrastructure is necessary to do our work effectively and efficiently
    2. cloud storage options are a useful addition to University hosted systems but are NOT a substitute.
    3. using Microsoft Office 365 cloud storage ie OneDrive, Teams, or SharePoint can take more time than using existing in-house storage.
  3. Deplores:
    1. significant strategic decisions  being made about how staff and schools conduct their academic work and operations without input from the University staff community.
    2. the increase in workload that  this particular decision will place on already overworked staff
  4. Resolves:
    1. To demand that management moves to a model of consultative decision making involving the staff within the campus community.
    2. To campaign against this regressive move.

Motion amended as above text and carried.