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

Posted on 18 September 2020 by Alan Smith18 September 2020
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

Posted in Covid19, Health and safety

Motions passed at general meeting 15 September

Posted on 15 September 2020 by Alan Smith25 September 2020

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)

Posted in Covid19, General Meetings, Health and safety

General meeting will decide branch response to covid-19 increase

Posted on 15 September 2020 by Alan Smith15 September 2020

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]

Posted in Covid19, General Meetings

Scheduled general meetings for 2020-2021

Posted on 3 September 2020 by Alan Smith3 September 2020

These are the meetings for all members of the UCU University of Leeds branch. These are our meetings where we make collective decisions as a branch. All members are entitled to submit motions to these meetings. Meeting link / location will be notified by email nearer the time. There may be additional extraordinary or emergency general meetings during the year at the request of members / committee / officers. For more about how to make branch policy and how to make general meetings work for everyone see ‘making UCU general meetings work better’

Motions should be sent to ucu@leeds.ac.uk.

Tuesday 15 September 2020, 1pm – 2pm

The deadline to submit motions to this meeting is 12pm on Tuesday 8 September.

This meeting would be the last scheduled opportunity for the branch to agree:

  • Any motions from the branch to the UCU special higher education sector conference on 30 September
  • Any emergency motions or amendments to the motions from the branch to the postponed UCU Congress 2020 provisionally being held 28-30 October.

Thursday 22 October, 12pm – 1pm

The deadline to submit motions to this meeting is 12pm on Tuesday 6 October.

This meeting would be the last scheduled opportunity for a branch general meeting to agree any motions from the branch to the UCU equality conferences.

Tuesday 8 December, 1pm – 2pm

The deadline to submit motions to this meeting is 12pm on Tuesday 1 December.

This meeting would be the last scheduled opportunity for a branch general meeting to agree any motions from the branch to the:

  • UCU annual meeting for staff on casualised contracts
  • UCU academic-related, professional staff annual meeting

Wednesday 10 March, 12pm – 1pm

The deadline to submit motions to this meeting is 12pm on Tuesday 2 March.

This meeting would be the last scheduled opportunity to agree any motions from the branch to the UCU Congress 2021.

Thursday 22 April, 1pm – 2pm

The deadline to submit motions to this meeting is 12pm on Tuesday 13 April.

This meeting would be the last scheduled opportunity for the branch to decide on amendments to propose to motions on the UCU Congress 2021 agenda.

Thursday 13 May, 3.45pm – 5pm (3.30pm for tea and cake)

The deadline to submit motions to this meeting is 12pm on Tuesday 27 April.

The deadline for nominations for the branch committee is Wednesday 12 May.

Monday 5 July, 12pm – 1pm

The deadline to submit motions to this meeting is 12pm on Tuesday 22 June.

Posted in General Meetings

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 supportive to staff on these matters, when it wouldn’t even cost them anything. The three campus trade unions have submitted a collective grievance on these issues and we will keep you posted about the response. See text of the collective grievance here.

We believe that the University has made a material change to our conditions and thus we are currently seeking legal advice on how to progress this further.

Get in touch with ucu@leeds.ac.uk if you feel you are being unreasonably refused carry over of leave, or if you are told you must take unpaid leave to cover quarantining. In the meantime, if you feel able, please keep the pressure up on your managers and local HR. Keep requesting to carry over leave and make sure they understand the pressures their decisions put on your home life.

Posted in Annual leave

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Petition against redundancies in Biological Sciences and Medicine

Posted on 13 January 2021 by Alan Smith13 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.

More details

(*Science, technology, engineering and mathematics)

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 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 

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 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.

Posted in Covid19, Solidarity, Workload

New lockdown

Posted on 6 January 2021 by Alan Smith7 January 2021
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.

Posted in Covid19, Health and safety, Members emails

Please update your details in case we move to a ballot

Posted on 4 January 2021 by Alan Smith4 January 2021

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.)

Posted in Dispute, Dispute advice, Redundancy
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