Leeds UCU are instrumental in changing UCU rules regarding migrant representation

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

In May we posted about why Leeds UCU committee believes it is crucial that migrant members have representation within the national UCU structure. At the UCU annual conference later than month, Leeds University UCU, along with UEA UCU, Manchester University UCU, Cambridge University UCU, Sheffield University UCU and the Black Members Standing Committee, moved and seconded the motions that made this happen. We are very proud to have been involved at this significant moment in UCU history and particularly want to thank our equality officer Dima Barakat Chami and committee member Laura Loyola-Hernandez for their hard work and passion in campaigning for this and introducing the motions at congress. Details of the motions passed by congress can be read here but in brief, congress resolves to:

  1. recognise migrant status as a protected characteristic under UCU equality structures
  2. implement rule changes necessary to ensure the representational gap is closed
  3. ensure protection of migrant members is a priority for UCU

The newly set up committee will be dedicated to addressing issues faced by migrant members. These issues can range from unfair visa fees (as of yet, not reimbursed by universities) to discriminatory practices which abound in the everyday life of migrants as they negotiate the ever fluctuating rules and regulations of the Home Office . There is a new wave of migrant activism in the union: the newly elected  GS has announced a special Equality ’task force’ which will place migration issues as one of its central concerns. With the new change of rules, the Migrants members committee, and the national Equality officers, UCU will hold universities accountable, on behalf of its migrant members. 

The dates for elections to the committee and the NEC will be announced shortly, so watch this space, and please be in touch with any questions or comments. 

Motions for Wednesday’s extraordinary general meeting + other news

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

Text of email sent to all members 5 July. (Agenda not published on the website; if you’re a member and haven’t received the agenda please email ucu@leeds.ac.uk)

Extraordinary general meeting 12pm Wednesday 10 July

The committee called this ‘EGM’ for all members because of a load of urgent issues going on now which they think members should have the opportunity to take a collective position on.

It’s 12pm – 1pm on Wednesday 10 July in Michael Sadler seminar room LG15

The attached agenda includes all motions on those subjects for members to decide if they agree these should be branch policies/strategies. The meeting was called to discuss:

  • USS pensions dispute
  • Pay and Equality dispute
  • Head of School appointments
  • Misuse of lecture capture by the university
  • UniForum (another round of collecting benchmarking data on “the efficiency and effectiveness of administration and support services”)
  • Discussion boards for in-course feedback
  • Timetabling (which includes a motion on workloads negotiating principles)
  • Centralisation of admissions

Please update your details before the strike ballots

If you’re moving institution or changing jobs, or if you’re a postgraduate student who will start doing paid teaching so be eligible for full (free) voting membership, or you want to get your post or your emails to a different address, please log in to ‘My UCU’*, top of the front page at ucu.org.uk.

(*If you can’t do it online you can phone the membership team on 0333 207 0719.)

If you wouldn’t be able to strike if strikes are called in the period November to April because, for example, you’re on long term leave for that whole period, please let us know (because by law we can’t ballot people who are unable to strike).

Leeds Trades Unions Council conference on climate change

Members may be interested in ‘How can trade unions meet the challenge of climate emergency?’ a conference on 19 October organised by Leeds Trades Union Council.

Council of Europe LGBTI survey

The UCU equality and participation unit is encouraging LGBT+ UCU members to participate in the Council of Europe LGBTI survey / Enquête de l’EU sur les LGBTI to help the survey reach as many people as possible.

Support: sexual harassment, stress, debt, migration issues

UCU sexual harassment support helpline 0800 138 8724

Counselling, support, advice on stress and debt is available for UCU members through the Education Support Partnership (day or night) 08000 562 561

Migration legal advice is available on the UCU website in ‘Working in the UK – a guide for EEA and non-EEA nationals’ and if that doesn’t answer your question there is a form in the guide to submit to get specialist legal advice.

Casework drop-in, Bradford College strikes, Environment Working group and more

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

Text from all-members email sent 3 July 2019

Casework drop-in Weds 2 July, 12.30 – 2:30, 7.52 EC Stoner

If there’s something you think you might need UCU support for, but aren’t sure, drop in for a chat with a caseworker. Our casework drop-ins are usually on the first Wednesday of each month. For serious matters where you will definitely need your own caseworker, don’t wait for a drop-in session, email ucu@leeds.ac.uk.  More about UCU support at  http://www.leedsucu.org.uk/support-and-benefits/ 

Supporting Bradford College UCU strikes Weds 3 – Fri 5 July

Bradford College UCU are striking over job cuts and pay. The college intends to cut 131 jobs, and staff have had only one 1% pay rise in the last 11 years, which means their pay has declined by 25% in real terms. If you can support their picket line on your way to work that would be fantastic solidarity – look out for the Leeds UCU banner.  See  https://ucu.org.uk/article/10189/Three-day-walkout-at-Bradford-College-from-Wednesday?list=1676 

Extraordinary General Meeting  Weds 10 July, 12 noon, Michael Sadler LG15

Concerned about any or all of: pensions, pay and equality, Head of School appointments, lecture capture, UniForum, discussion boards for in-course feedback, timetabling, or centralisation of admissions? Come and have your say at this EGM!  A full agenda including the motions that have been submitted for decision will be emailed to you soon. Hope to see you there.

New Environment Working Group

The inaugural meeting of the Leeds UCU Environment Working Group will be held Friday 26 July 1-2 pm.  If you are interested in being part of this new venture please email me. Enthusiasm or expertise will be equally welcome. A room will be booked to accommodate us. 

Andrea Rylands, UCU Environmental Rep, a.j.rylands@leeds.ac.uk

Industrial action ballots September/October

The recent email from our new General Secretary, Jo Grady, explains what’s happening and why. You will get two ballot papers to vote on industrial action, one on USS pensions and one on pay, equality, workload, and job security. It’s really important you use your vote in these ballots. Now would be an excellent time to check that the union has the correct postal address for you – please log on to MyUCU to check this at  http://www.ucu.org.uk/myucu  

Leeds UCU summer newsletter

We’ve put together a quick summary of everything that’s going on and it would be great if you could share this with colleagues, including those who aren’t (yet!) union members.  Can you put a printout on a local noticeboard, kitchen or on your door? The newsletter is online here  http://www.leedsucu.org.uk/newsletter-summer-2019/ (and there’s a printable PDF you can download). Thanks.

In solidarity,

Ben

Council of Europe LGBTI survey / Enquête de l’EU sur les LGBTI

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

From UCU’s nation Equality and Participation Unit:

The EU Fundamental Rights Agency is undertaking a survey to look at experiences of LGBT+ people across Europe.

The survey takes around 20 minutes to complete and you cannot skip questions.

Some of the questions that are asked vary from UCU practice / policy for expressing LGBT+ identities and experiences. There is a free text box at the end of the survey should you want to leave any comment about your experience that may not have been fully reflected in the survey.

One thing to be aware of is that in the drop down boxes the United Kingdom does not appear under U and is located somewhere near the middle of European countries.

The survey is looking for responses from anyone who considers themselves to be LGBTI, who is aged 15 years and above and lives in the European Union, Serbia or North Macedonia as candidate countries. 

The survey can be found on www.lgbtisurvey.eu

The survey asks respondents about their experiences of discrimination and hate crime or harassment, as well as about their daily lives, problems and challenges they face in having their rights respected, protected and promoted. The results will feed into the 2020 assessment by the European Commission of how its List of Actions is being implemented. In this way, the data can be used to assess the effectiveness of policies and measures to combat discrimination and victimisation. They will also help promote LGBTI participation in society. The results will allow for comparisons and trends between the first and second survey. It should reveal whether the situation for LGBTI people is improving – or not – across the European Union. This constitutes the 2nd wave of the European survey of lesbian, gay, bisexual, trans, intersex, and also non-binary and other gender non-conforming people.

Your answers are welcomed until 7 July 2019

Newsletter – summer 2019

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

University of Leeds University & College Union

USS Pensions

USS

There seems to be no comfortable end in sight for the USS dispute. USS have proposed three options as solutions to the ongoing valuation, all of which mean members and employers paying more, and none of which implement the Joint Expert Panel’s recommendations. Employers prefer option 3 which would increase member contributions to 9.6% with possible imposed additional increases after later valuations. It has recently been revealed, after whistleblowing from a USS trustee, that USS misled employers and members about the 2018 valuation, claiming wrongly that The Pensions Regulator had said the JEP recommendations would be too risky.

UCU believes we can’t trust these people any longer, has called for the resignation of USS CEO Bill Galvin, and is exploring the possibility of legal action against the USS Trustee Board. We reject any members’ contribution increases, we call on UUK to pick up any imposed extra costs, and we plan to ballot on industrial action in September if they do not agree. See leedsucu.org.uk/pensions

What’s happening on pay?

2019 pay negotiations with the employers began in early May and the Universities & Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) offered 1.8% (increased to 3.65% for low grades), but no significant action on gender pay and precarious contracts. This fell well short of our claim. At UCU Congress in May, delegates expressed profound dissatisfaction, particularly after years of below-inflation pay rises including 2% in 2018. Congress resolved to campaign to win an industrial action ballot on this next academic year, with equality and anti-casualisation at the heart of our claim. See leedsucu.org.uk/pay

REF 2021

REF in warning triangle

After formal negotiations with Leeds UCU, the University Executive Group has revised the REF2021 Code of Practice. They stopped short of the full range of improvements we wanted to make but UCU secured a no detriment clause, to make clear that staff should not be negatively affected by the university’s preparations for this invidious and incommodious national auditing process. We have also won UCU oversight over the appeals process and equalities monitoring. We remain concerned that some managers are pressuring staff into Teaching & Scholarship roles in an attempt to game the REF.
Get in touch if you or your colleagues are in this situation (ucu@leeds.ac.uk).

Augar review

This long awaited review of post-18 education and funding was published on May 30th. Crucially, whether it is adopted will be dependent on who ends up leading the country. Nonetheless, we are concerned about the suggestion to reduce funding for HE which will be particularly detrimental to arts and humanities subjects. An emphasis on HE meeting the requirements of business is evident. The harsher repayment terms mean the worst off would end up paying more. This, together with withdrawing financial support for foundation years, is dangerous for widening participation.

Head of School appointment process

Up till now most schools have appointed their new Heads by involving academic staff who can question the applicants on their plans and research. University management are changing this, to appoint externally with little if any staff involvement. UCU are not happy with this for many reasons, not least that part of the rationale may be to appoint anti-union managers. We are challenging this change, see www.leedsucu.org.uk/hosprocess

Anonymous discussion boards for in-course feedback

We had serious concerns about this plan, including the potential for bullying of staff and students, increased workload and potential use of comments for other purposes. We have heard that, after significant resistance at Faculty Taught Student Education Committees, the plan will not now be going ahead. We hope that ways of addressing student concerns will now be sought which are inclusive, are respectful of staff and students’ rights, and which draw on existing good practice around the university.

Workload and stress

It's your time

Recent staff survey results reported only 77% felt their work allowed a healthy work-life balance. We’ve raised workload/stress with management many times so we hope this survey result will result in real action. The epidemic of stress and anxiety in HE has been in the news due to increasing staff referrals to counselling services, caused by workload, increased performance management, pressure to perform and precarity. Please get in touch if you have workload concerns (ucu@leeds.ac.uk). Remember UCU members can contact the Educational Support Partnership for support, see educationsupportpartnership.org.uk

UCU election news!

Vicky Blake, Leeds UCU President 2017-19, has been elected as Vice President (VP) of UCU nationally. She will be VP for a year then President Elect then President, with responsibility for chairing the decision making bodies of our union. Vicky will be brilliant! Many thanks to Vicky for her huge contribution to our branch over the years and good luck!

Jo Grady, a Sheffield lecturer and one of the ‘USS Briefs’ group who emerged from the USS strikes, has been elected as our new General Secretary. Read her inspiring speech at Congress: ucu.org.uk/article/10119/Address-by-incoming-general-secretary-Jo-Grady

Finally, at our AGM in May, we elected new branch officers and committee. See www.leedsucu.org.uk/about-us

Report from UCU Congress May 2019

UCU’s annual Congress is its supreme policy making body, and it met this year over the May Bank holiday weekend. Leeds University UCU sent five branch delegates to Congress: Arunima Bhattacharya, Dima Chami, Laura Loyola, Megan Povey and Chloe Wallace. Lesley McGorrigan attended as delegate from the Yorkshire and Humberside Regional Committee, and Vicky Blake as a member of the National Executive Committee (and Vice-President elect). Pay and pensions were important topics, but a highlight of Congress this year was the change we helped make to UCU structures to ensure that migrant members are effectively represented and that UCU is committed to protect and defend migrant members and campaign against harassment, prejudice and discrimination against them. Overall, Congress was energising. Under the leadership of our new General Secretary, Jo Grady, we are united in fighting issues of pay and pensions, and are also mobilised to fight for equality and fair treatment, the end of casualisation, to act positively against the threat of the far right, and to prioritise campaigning and action on the climate emergency. More details at leedsucu.org.uk/congress2019report

Who’s your local rep?

Most schools and departments have at least one local rep, who is your first point of contact with the union. Have a chat if you’re interested in joining! See leedsucu.org.uk/about-us

Members please check your address

Please visit MyUCU www.ucu.org.uk/myucu  to ensure UCU has your correct postal address!

PDF version of this summer 2019 newsletter

All members: extraordinary general meeting 10 July

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

All members of UCU University of Leeds Branch are invited to attend an Extraordinary General Meeting:

Wednesday 10 July 12 noon – 1pm
Michael Sadler seminar room LG.15

The meeting will discuss a number of issues that the branch needs to take a position on or plan for before next semester:

  1. USS pensions dispute
  2. Pay and Equality dispute
  3. Head of School appointments
  4. Misuse of lecture capture by the university
  5. UniForum (another round of collecting benchmarking data on “the efficiency and effectiveness of administration and support services”)
  6. Discussion boards for in-course feedback
  7. Timetabling
  8. Centralisation of admissions

A full agenda will be circulated soon including motions submitted by members on these issues. The deadline for submitting motions (by email to ucu@leeds.ac.uk) is noon on Tuesday 2 July. If you want to submit a motion, perhaps with other colleagues, you can discuss it with any branch committee members beforehand if that would be helpful.

All members are very welcome to the meeting. We hope to see lots of you there!

(To new members: General Meetings are for all UCU members at the university. They are where we make decisions as a local union, so are fundamental to our democracy. They are hopefully also useful for finding out what’s going on across the university and in our union more widely!)

Boycott of Trinity College, Cambridge

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

UCU’s higher education committee (HEC) today voted to officially censure Trinity College, Cambridge and will call on staff worldwide to boycott the institution unless it reverses its decision to pull out of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS). At a meeting of the college’s Fellows this morning, a motion to reconsider the decision to withdraw from USS was lost by 43 votes to 76. The union will set up a special committee to consider what action the boycott would entail and it may include asking HE staff to:

  • not attend, speak at or organise academic or other conferences at Trinity 
  • not apply for jobs at Trinity 
  • not give lectures at Trinity 
  • not accept positions as visiting professors or researchers at Trinity 
  • not write for any academic journal which is edited from Trinity 
  • not take up new contracts as external examiners.

(Post from UCU national website)

Calling on the UK government to act over Sudan massacre and human rights abuses

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

At least 110 opposition supporters were murdered in Sudan earlier this month when a paramilitary group violently dispersed a peaceful sit-in outside defence headquarters in Khartoum. The massacre followed six months of developing protests that began over bread prices last December, leading to a general strike in May.  The demonstrators were initially protesting against the 30-year-rule of Omar al-Bashir.  They continued to protest after he was deposed by the military, demanding a swift transition to civilian rule.

We encourage members to update their knowledge of what is occurring in Sudan: https://menasolidaritynetwork.com/2019/06/03/briefing-who-are-the-armed-men-who-threaten-sudans-peaceful-revolution/ and contact your MPs to promote the following three demands:

We call on the UK government to:

  • halt military and security cooperation with individuals and groups in Sudan responsible for human rights abuses.
  • end to the transfer of arms or equipment to Sudan which can be used for repression.
  • end the Khartoum process.

We note the following statement from the Sudanese Professionals Association (3 June 2019):

In the early hours of today, Rapid Support Forces backed by security forces and Police stormed the sit-in area in front of the headquarters of the Sudanese army in the capital Khartoum. Fire bullets were used excessively and injured several unarmed citizens; uncounted numbers of them are dead. The raiding forces burned the tents in the sit-in area and used excessive physical force against the protestors. The raid and attacks against civilians are still ongoing in an attempt to break and disperse the peaceful sit-in.
We consider this violation a criminal offence against the Sudanese people, and a total reversion to the old regime’s tactics and policies.
The Sudanese revolution will continue and shall prevail.

The Foreign Relations Committee, Sudanese Professionals Association
foreignrelations@sudaneseprofessionals.org

UCU University of Leeds Branch Committee

USS pension, misrepresentation: very important update

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

As a matter of urgency, please read [this revealing article] published in the Financial Times over the weekend. 

When you get to the FT website, you can log into Leeds’ institutional subscription for access using your @leeds.ac.uk email address. 

This article contains evidence (now in the public domain) that USS has misrepresented the position of the Pensions Regulator regarding calculations of risk and that it failed to address this misrepresentation when asked. This was at a crucial time while Universities UK the employers’ representative body) were consulting with member institutions over proposed assumptions for the 2018 USS valuation. 

USS was already under investigation by two regulators after one of its trustees, Professor Jane Hutton (appointed by UCU), turned whistleblower: she accused the Trustee Chair and Vice-Chancellor of the University of Birmingham, David Eastwood, of withholding crucial information from her. See [here].

We now know that Eastwood was a recipient of the email sent from the Pensions Regulator to USS in January. It is notable that Josephine Cumbo shared an excerpt of this email on [Twitter] which says that the Pensions Regulator were planning to copy this communication to Universities UK. UCU are concerned that it would thus appear that our employers’ representative body appear to be implicated in a cover-up of this email, which has never been shared with us (despite repeated formal requests). 

We will write again soon with more detail of the rapidly developing situation with our USS pension scheme. In the meantime here is a brief recap of where we are:

USS has refused to implement the recommendations of the Joint Expert Panel (JEP), to which UCU and Universities UK had signed up in full. Instead they proffered three options, none of which upheld the JEP recommendations and none of which are acceptable to UCU. The employers’ body UUK has announced its support for “Option 3” which would force members to increase pension contributions to 9.6% of salary from October 2019, and 11% after 2020. 

UCU has sent dispute letters to each USS employer, with a deadline of 19 June to respond to avert the need for us to head into industrial action. Read more, including the dispute letter [here]. 

There is still time for our employers to do the right thing.

The revelations over the weekend about the behaviour of the USS executive and board throw all of this into even sharper relief. There is still time for our employers to act, to stand with UCU in defence of our USS pension scheme. UCU has made it clear that we have run out of patience. If our employers do not act with us to confront an organisation currently headed by those who have demonstrated they cannot be trusted to act in USS members’ interests or to act transparently, we will have to take action against our employers.

Let’s hope our employers listen. UCU remain committed to defending the best possible version of USS for all members of the scheme, and to combatting misinformation and faulty methodology. 

In solidarity,

Vicky and Committee