Minutes of extraordinary general meeting 20 August 2021

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

Extraordinary General Meeting
1pm – 2pm, Friday 20 August 2021
Video meeting on Zoom

Minutes

Noted that chat will not be open during meeting, except that members can use the chat to message the meeting hosts if they prefer to use text when called to speak, or to ask questions.

Update on disputes

Chloe Wallace, branch president: 
On USS, the employers (Universities UK – UUK) have proposed a package to deal with the purported deficit, which will cut benefits especially for early career staff. Talks are ongoing but our UCU negotiators are seeking industrial power to support them in order to get somewhere with the negotiations.
On Four Fights, the pay offer for 2020-21 was zero, for 2021-22 it’s 1.5%, and very limited offers on casualisation, workloads and equality. This is unacceptable especially given how hard we’ve all been working during the pandemic. One of the achievements of the last industrial action was serious negotiations on the three non-pay issues, which are structural and sector-wide not local. The employers (UCEA) now seem to be backing off from negotiating on these, now just offering ‘working groups’. Negotiations are ongoing but our negotiators need industrial power behind them to get anywhere.
On both disputes, we are being asked as a union to decide how much leverage we will give our negotiators.  UCU Congress in 2021 made some general decisions – a continued commitment to all of the four fights and to keeping them together, agreement to reject the 1.5% pay offer and to enter into dispute. It also discussed campaigns and strategy. On USS, if negotiations aren’t successful and employers won’t budge, Congress agreed to move to ballot also. There are also legal actions on USS in the pipeline.
HE Sector Conference on 9th September will now decide what next, and this meeting is to feed in from Leeds to that conference.

Mark Taylor Batty, branch pensions rep:
UCU negotiators have been working on USS for months and our arguments have all been rejected. The Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) have to respond to the valuation – by agreeing changes to benefits and contributions. UUK are wanting to push through their proposals which include a two-tier scheme and reductions in benefits. UCU can put a counter proposal, but are still discussing what counter proposal to put – either a ‘no deficit’ proposal whereby employers meet the whole of the contributions increase, or a proposal which is more of a compromise. Any UCU counter proposal would probably be rejected as the chair always sides with UUK.
USS have rejected the idea of doing a 2021 valuation although their arguments against it have been disproved.  There are also legal challenges but legal action is not a solution on its own.
Members will know that we are due to see an 11% rise in our contributions in October, which is a result of the 2018 valuation.
Industrial action is the only way to get employers to back down. It’s an unhappy situation but we can’t let these changes go through.  It’s not a question of whether we strike but when.

Vicky Blake, UCU president
We need to decide as a union whether and how to link the two disputes, which is why the forthcoming sector conference is so important. This meeting will advise our delegate to the sector conference, who will set policy on this, which the Higher Education committee will then implement by taking the statutory decisions about balloting and industrial action.
The most important thing is that, whatever the debates and disagreement we have within the union, that once decisions are democratically taken that we all stick by them and stick together to do whatever is decided.
The employer bodies wont move without us taking a stand.  Since Covid they think they can get away with anything, and we need to hold them to account. They need to be clear about how serious we are about improving things for all of our members, and to be worried about what we will do. They need to be motivated to work with us. We must be solid in pursuing this. 

Questions:

1) We’ll need funds to support members if we take strike action. What’s the situation with our local fighting fund and the national strike fund?

A: Our local fund is very healthy.  We were able to pay all the claims that members put in during 2018-2020 and the fund still has £25k, thanks to generous donations.

A: Nationally the strike fund is good but has a lot of demands on it – there are local disputes over redundancies and H&S issues, and a big dispute coming soon in Further Education.  So it’s important to keep raising money for it.  Look out for more fundraisers coming soon, and if you can personally donate that would be great.  Note also that part of the strike fund comes from member subs, so the more members we have the more that fund grows.

2) What is our membership density?

A: It varies across the university – very strong in some areas and less so in others.  Our membership grew considerably during the 2019-20 dispute and continued to grow a little during Covid.
Our power depends on how many members we have and how many are willing to take action. So it’s important to keep recruiting as many members as possible. Please ask your colleagues to join!

3) What is the position of our VC on USS, has it changed after the Big Conversation?

A: No change. She supports UUK line.  We know however that she is very concerned about the possibility of industrial action.

Comments:

Megan Povey:  We are dealing with intransigence of our employers and USS. The choice of valuation date was designed to undermine the value of the pension scheme, so as to get away from Defined Benefit and get the pensions risk off university accounts, which supports marketisation and privatisation.  Our VC has said that DB is unaffordable. Fighting for pensions is fighting for our sector. 

Gabriella Alberti: The state of our sector is worrying – lots of disputes, redundancies, non-continuation of FTCs and casualisation getting worse.  But maybe we have more leverage and bargaining power now?  From things like students being bribed to defer, sector becoming less appealing to join.

Branch motion – Progressing the Four Fights and USS disputes

This branch notes that:

  1. UCU paused the USS and ‘Four Fights’ disputes during the pandemic.
  2. UCEA imposed a 0% pay rise last year and their ‘final offer’ of 1.5% this year is below inflation.
  3. despite progress during 2020 negotiations, UCEA are now not making any substantial offers on casualisation, workload and equality.
  4. UUK have not joined UCU to pressure USS and the Pensions Regulator to cancel the 2020 valuation and use a moderately prudent approach in 2021.
  5. Pension contributions will rise in October to 11% of salary.
  6. UUK’s proposals on USS are likely to mean lower pension benefits, a two-tier scheme which disadvantages early career members, and further contribution increases

This branch believes that:

  1. The four fights and pensions issues are inextricably linked. Low pay, pay inequality and job insecurity all lead to poorer pensions and a worse retirement. Casualised and low paid members may not be able to afford to join the USS pension scheme at all.
  2. It is in all our interests to make sure that everyone has fair pay, good working conditions (including a reasonable workload), job security, and a decent future pension.
  3. Employers would seek to divide us, pitting those with relative job security who are worried about their pensions against those whose main concerns are low pay, equality and casualisation. So solidarity across roles and job types is vital – we must stand together rather than only caring about what affects us personally.
  4. This solidarity was strong during the action in 2019-2020 and we must reinvigorate it now.

This branch resolves to:

  1. Make clear to UCU centrally that we believe co-ordinating the disputes is essential.
  2. Campaign locally on the four fights and pensions campaigns together.
  3. Hold local UCU meetings across the university during the start of the autumn term to discuss the disputes and plan the campaign.
  4. Work with student groups to seek their support, particularly to pressure management to use Leeds’ influence within the employer bodies to make substantial progress in both disputes.
  5. Work closely with our sister campus trade unions on campaigning.
  6. Prepare for industrial action balloting by developing a strong local ‘Get The Vote Out’ strategy.

Proposed by Ben Plumpton. Seconded by Simon Hewitt.

Comments

Joe Kanuritch: Putting the two disputes together is important. On the picket line, talking to colleagues who aren’t members or public, it was good to have different issues to explain, most would support some of the 5 things. Would be a shame to take separate action.

Lata Narayanaswamy: Support the motion. Struck by how much money the university seems to have on getting students to defer. Staff are consistently not a priority.

[48 people in meeting so quorate.
Votes for 42, Votes against 0, Abstentions 3]

The motion was carried.

Motion to be submitted to Higher Education Sector Conference (HESC) – Combining Four Fights and USS disputes

HESC believes that:

  1. The four fights and USS issues are inextricably linked. Low pay, pay inequality and job insecurity mean poorer pensions and a worse retirement, and some members cannot afford pension contributions.
  2. Solidarity between different groups of members (casualised/permanent, different pay grades, equality groups, academic/related, pre- and post-92 branches) was hugely important during the 2019-2020 industrial action.
  3. Continued solidarity will be vital to winning the disputes and for building the union.
  4. It is therefore crucial not to separate the disputes or give priority to either.

HESC resolves to:

  1. Coordinate the four fights and USS campaigns, highlighting the links.
  2. Give parity to both disputes in strategic planning, balloting and publicity, ensuring that all affected branches have a voice in developing the dispute strategy.
  3. Ballot and take action on both disputes concurrently.
  4. Coordinate action with sister unions, if possible, to improve effectiveness.

(149 words)

Proposed by Ben Plumpton, seconded by Aisha Walker.

Questions

1) Some people at the university are in the TPS pension scheme because of legacy from being employed somewhere else – can they participate in the USS dispute?

A: Yes all full members in participating branches can participate in industrial action ballots and action. (Note that this doesn’t include retired members, student members, unemployed members or members likely to be on long term maternity, parental or sick leave during the period of any action. Postgraduate student members on the full free membership are entitled to vote)

[48 people in meeting so quorate.
Votes for 43, Votes against 0, Abstentions 3]

The motion was carried.

President’s closing comments

Chloe Wallace will submit the motion for the Higher Education Sector Conference (HESC) on 9th September.

Committee will endeavour to find a way for members to discuss and comment on the agenda for HESC once that is published.

This page was last updated on 11 January 2022

USS and Four Fights disputes (and a bit on facecoverings)

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

UCU is balloting over strike action on USS pensions and on pay, casualisation, workloads and equality (‘four fights’). Branch president Chloe Wallace is asking members to check your account details ready for a postal ballot at home, and to prepare to vote. Chloe’s email to members, copied below, also mentions initial responses the university’s improved guidance on face coverings.

Dear members 

I hope everyone is staying safe and well. This is an email primarily about the announcement received a couple of days ago about national ballots on the Four Fights and Pensions. I want to try briefly to pre-empt some of your questions and say something about what we will be doing here at Leeds. I will, however, add a paragraph at the end about the University position on face coverings as I have had a number of emails on that. That will make this a long email – I’d be grateful, however, if you could take the time to read it as it may help clarify what is going on. 

The Union nationally has now established trade disputes with all relevant HE employers in the UK, including, of course, the University of Leeds. This is following decisions taken at a Special Higher Education Sector Conference, attended by branch delegates from across the country.  You can find a copy of the letter sent to Universities on USS here  and on the Four Fights here  

I strongly recommend having a look at those letters, because they set out in clear terms what UCU’s demands are. I know that understanding the specificity of what we are seeking is important to you and that, perhaps particularly in relation to the pensions dispute, this can seem unclear. However, it is clearly spelt out in these letters what the employers need to do to resolve these disputes and avoid the massive disruption of industrial action. If you would like more detail on the claims in the Four Fights dispute, on workload, casualization, equality and pay, you can find that it in the formal claim document here

Our next step is to ballot for industrial action. The ballot will open on 18th October and run for just over 2 weeks. Under the 2016 Trade Union Act – a piece of Tory legislation explicitly designed to weaken trade unions by limiting our industrial power – a number of legal restrictions exist on this ballot. It must be conducted by post, not online; to be valid, 50% or more of eligible members must vote; and 50% of those voting must vote Yes to proposed action. You will be asked to vote separately on each dispute (USS, and Four Fights) and to vote on willingness to strike and to take action short of a strike. The ballot paper will need to state the range of actions short of a strike which may be proposed (e.g. marking boycott, work to contract, refusal to do voluntary work) but will not specify precisely which ones will be used and when, and will not specify strike days or how many days of action will initially be called. The decision as to when and for how long we strike and what action short of a strike we take will be taken after the ballot results are known by the Unions national Higher Education Committee. Once the ballot closes, 2 weeks notice of industrial action needs to be given to employers – this means that the earliest we can take action is the latter half of November. The ballot mandate remains in place for 6 months. 

These rules are tough, but UCU has defied them time and time again, both for national and local disputes. Many branches have achieved a successful ballot outcome over the last 18 months, so remote or hybrid working is not an obstacle – it just means we have to do things a bit differently. Leeds University is one of the strongest, most engaged and active branches in the country and I have no doubt we can do it. But every vote counts- there are numerous examples of branches missing the turnout threshold by single figures of votes. So I am asking all members to take the following actions now: 

1. Check your details on MyUCU and in particular ensure your postal address is right. We have been recommending for a while that you make sure your recorded postal address is your home address and we believe most of you have done this but double check anyway, particularly if you have recently moved home.

2. Commit to voting now. We are a democratic trade union and industrial action ballots are a key expression of that. Not voting prevents the union from acting and effectively silences the voices of those who do vote. A strong turnout helps us both nationally and locally – officers and negotiators need your power behind us. 

3. Inform yourself to decide how to vote. There will be a lot of emails, both nationally and locally, and I know all too well how hard that is to manage, but informed choice is at the heart of democracy. There will be national events going on. At Leeds we will be holding non-motion focused meetings on the different issues in the dispute for you to hear what the issues are, ask questions, and learn how industrial action will help us win. There will also be local meetings called by local reps, to allow you to meet other members in your area and build solidarity.  

Above all, please prepare to fight. No-one wants this, and it remains open to our employers across the UK to take the very simple steps needed to stop this from happening.  But if they won’t, we need to fight to win, to protect our working conditions, pay and pensions, to stamp out casualization and inequality, and to save our sector, and the health and wellbeing of all within it. Vote, and vote yes.  

 Face coverings 

As promised, due to the number of emails I have had about the new university position on face coverings, a few responses. What I am hearing is that it is better but not good enough and I agree. A number of people have asked about the wording that “No-one will be denied access to a teaching event for not wearing a face covering” This reflects what is stated in the latest government guidance for England, which is frankly incoherent. However, a number of universities have gone further and mandated facecoverings, including in teaching spaces, and we do not see why Leeds cannot do the same. If you are wondering what is happening around the country, a member at Sussex UCU, Andrew Chitty, is keeping a running account here   We are awaiting further clarity in the form of FAQs about, for example, what to do if a student refuses. And we note that all of this change is  happening far too late.  We will be discussing next steps at our General Meeting on 7th October – please come along and make your voice heard.  

In solidarity

Dr Chloe Wallace

Associate Professor in Law
School of Law
University of Leeds

Co-Director, Centre for Innovation and Research in Legal Education
Programme Leader, School of Law 4 year programmes

President, Leeds University UCU

@chloew1970

This page was last updated on 24 September 2021

News update – lots of things

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

Email to members Friday 30 July 2021

This is your final email from me as Leeds UCU President.  Chloe Wallace will be your brilliant new President from 1st August!

I wanted to update you on a number of things.

Health and safety, and return to campus

UCU continues to be concerned that the campus unions are not involved in the ‘Transitional Ways of Working’ and ‘Future Ways of Working’ groups, which are making decisions on how/when/who/where the return to campus should happen, and about future working arrangements. So we are having to react and raise concerns rather than working in partnership to ensure the best outcomes for staff and students which is a shame. We have repeatedly called for a cautious approach to the relaxing of rules on things like face coverings and social distancing, and this seems to have been taken on board to some extent. UCU has called for students to be strongly encouraged to get vaccinated, and for the government to make vaccines available to all students (but UCU does not support compulsion, see https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/11688/UCU-responds-to-reports-of-compulsory-vaccines-for-students). We understand that talks are underway to set up a vaccine centre on campus and that the lateral flow testing centre will continue. If you need Covid home testing kits, you can pick them up from campus or locally, see https://coronavirus.leeds.ac.uk/tests-and-vaccinations/free-asymptomatic-testing-centres-on-campus/. 

As always, if you have health and safety concerns about working on campus, either because you feel arrangements in your area are or might become unsafe, or because you are concerned about your personal risk, contact ucu@leeds.ac.uk for support.

Annual leave

Yet again we’re hearing reports that staff in some departments have been told they cannot carry forward annual leave, or that it is restricted to ‘exceptional circumstances’. The annual leave policy does not say this and we have successfully challenged such edicts in a number of areas. Please get in touch with ucu@leeds.ac.uk if you are having problems with carry forward. 

I do hope though that you are able to take some time off over the next month or so, and that you have a lovely time, everyone deserves a good break after the difficult and hard working times we’ve had in the last 18 months.

Workloads

We know that workload is a huge issue for many members. A sub group of our negotiating body JCUU (the Joint Committee of the University and the UCU) has been set up to work on this, and first signs are encouraging. Management can see from many posts in the Big Conversation that it’s not just a few union people making a fuss, unreasonable and growing workloads are common and are causing many problems. UCU is being consulted on new workload models in some areas, and we hope we can push for significant improvements.

Anti-casualisation

As you know we’ve been working on this with HR for some time. Progress is awfully slow, but in some areas we’ve managed to successfully challenge jobs advertised as fixed term, and to get some members moved onto permanent posts. We also know there’s a lot more to do, and new problems keep coming up (eg ridiculously low “annualised hours” contracts), so we’ll continue to challenge, and will continue those negotiations into next year.

Equality

Megan Povey and I were elected as joint Equality Officer at the AGM, and I’m looking forward to getting stuck in to equality work. We’ll be holding meetings of the Equality Working Group in the new term, and would greatly welcome more members to get involved. I’m particularly conscious that we need to work on racism, and would appreciate any black members and members of colour who would be willing to have a chat about what we could be working on. Please email me.

USS pensions

If you contribute to a USS pension you’ll have received an email from USS “Your valuation questions answered” which I found frankly insulting. Sadly, UUK do not seem willing to join UCU in challenging the 2020 valuation, and want to proceed with detrimental changes – increased contributions, lower pension benefits, and a two-tier scheme which would disadvantage early career members. See this FAQ https://www.ucu.org.uk/uss-faqs  A group of USS scheme members from UCU have put in a official complaint to USS which some of you may have signed in January. USS have rejected their concerns, so the group are now submitting a second letter to USS’s Internal Dispute Resolution process stage 2 – please read and sign it here https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScFswaq9XAcaLgG6BDl3eXrpd5_3mHx0rNGUY_nV0-0DZ1jNg/viewform. (If you signed the original complaint you will have been emailed about this already by Neil Davies from Bristol). They are also crowdfunding a legal challenge which I’d encourage you to contribute to if you can, see https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/save-pensions-and-planet/ 

The Four Fights dispute

Negotiations on ‘pay and related matters’ with university employers for 2021-22 have been going on for some while. The latest ‘offer’ is 1.5% pay increase (less than inflation, and following a 0% pay rise was imposed last year) together with ‘working groups’ (nothing concrete) on casualisation, equality and workloads. This is very disappointing, especially after we were starting to make progress as a result of the 2019-2020 industrial action. Our sister union Unison are balloting for industrial action now, and UCU has a Higher Education Sector Conference in September to discuss our next steps on this and USS.

… which leads neatly to …

Branch EGM 20th August 1-2 pm

Please come along to this branch meeting to discuss the two disputes.  The deadline for motions to this meeting has passed, and the agenda will be circulated soon.  This is your chance to have a say on next steps in these disputes, so please put the date in your diary and come long if you can. I won’t be chairing but I’ll be there, so I look forward to seeing you.

In solidarity and with hope for a better year ahead,

Cheers,

Ben

Ben Plumpton
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
University of Leeds UCU President (for a very short while longer!)

This page was last updated on 11 August 2021

Extraordinary General Meeting Friday 20 August – ‘Four Fights’ & USS

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

This is advance notice of an Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) of the branch to consider a single issue – our disputes over Four Fights (“pay and related matters” i.e. pay, casualisation, workload and equality) and USS pensions – and in particular, to discuss any motions which the branch might want to send to the next UCU Higher Education Sector Conference (HESC) on Thursday 9 September.  Apologies that holding an EGM in August is not great timing when many people might be taking annual leave, but it had to be held in August to meet deadlines set by UCU centrally for receipt of motions to HESC.

Our EGM will be held on Friday 20th August from 1-2 pm, online using Zoom. The meeting link will be circulated nearer the time. The EGM was called, to discuss this one issue, by request of your branch committee at its meeting today, Tuesday 20th July. The deadline for motions to the EGM is 10 am on Friday 30th July. (Motions on other issues can be submitted to the first normal General Meeting of the next academic year, once the date for that is notified to members).

The previous Higher Education Sector Conference (HESC) on 2 June resolved to reject UCEA’s 2021-22 offer (on pay and related matters) and to formally enter into dispute. It also agreed to ballot for industrial action over the Four Fights, and to ballot for industrial action over USS if “the employers have not joined UCU to pressure USS and the pension regulator to cancel the 2020 valuation and use an evidence-based moderately prudent approach in 2021”. This next conference on 9 September will decide on how we approach balloting, when we ballot, and whether to link the two disputes. If you would like to submit a motion on this topic, but are unsure how best to word it to go forward to a UCU UK wide conference, get in touch with the branch via ucu@leeds.ac.uk.

I’m sure you remember, just before the pandemic we were taking industrial action over our two disputes, the Four Fights and USS pensions. That action was beginning to have a real impact in negotiations, but then the pandemic happened. UCU paused our disputes, but the issues we were fighting over haven’t gone away, and indeed have got worse over the last 15 months. There’s a strong feeling across the union, as seen at the recent UCU Congress, that we can’t continue to accept dire pay offers, no progress on the other three issues, and more detrimental changes to USS pensions. We must take a stand. Come along to the EGM and have your democratic input into how we do that.

For more information see:

– Details of 2021-22 negotiations over pay and related matters (“new JNCHES”) see https://ucu.org.uk/he2021 

– Outcome of 2020-21 negotiations over pay and related matters (zero pay rise, very little progress on casualisation, workloads and equality) see https://ucu.org.uk/he2020 

– FAQ on proposed USS pension changes see https://www.ucu.org.uk/uss-faqs

– Motions passed at UCU Higher Education Sector Conference 2 June, including motions on balloting for industrial action, see https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/11596/Higher-education-sector-conference-2021

Note also that one of our sister unions on campus, Unison, are already balloting over the summer for industrial action over pay.

Hope you manage to get some rest and relaxation this summer, despite everything. 

In solidarity and with hope for a better year ahead,

Cheers,

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

Email sent to branch members 20 July 2021

This page was last updated on 21 July 2021

Local update

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

Email to branch members 28 June 2021

A quick email to update you on some local things at University of Leeds.

Promotions

The promotion process has been frozen for some time, and we have been pressing for it to be unfrozen.  We are expecting this to happen very soon, and that there will be no further pauses.  If you have been intending to apply for promotion, you might want to start getting your application ready, see https://hr.leeds.ac.uk/info/8/promotions/299/promotions_process. 

Race at work survey

The university is participating in this national survey. I recommend you complete it using the university-specific link of https://start.yougov.com/refer/v2x8CJnrnY8yr7 (NB don’t use Internal Explorer).  A summary of the data from Leeds staff will be provided to the university and from them to the campus unions.  We have asked management many times previously for data about race and pay/promotions so that we can push for changes where there is inequality, but we’ve been told the university’s data isn’t adequate, partly because people choose not to identify their race. We understand that you might feel reluctant about providing information to management about racial identify or experiences of unequal treatment. However, this survey is anonymous so there will be no way you can be identified, and it will hopefully be useful to your union in fighting for equality.  The closing date is this Wednesday, 30th June, and it takes about 15 minutes to fill it in.

Decolonising framework

A proposed university Decolonising Framework has been drafted and is now being shared around schools. Thanks to everyone involved for this great initiative, and we would encourage members to engage meaningfully with it, but it is crucial that this is properly resourced (including workload allocation).  Policy is not enough on its own though and we need to continue our solidarity with everyone pushing on decolonialisation and anti-racism both within and beyond our university.

Fixed term contracts 

UCU has been campaigning on anti-casualisation for a long time – it was one of the Four Fights we took strike action over – and at Leeds we put in an anti-casualisation claim two years ago. We’re in a process of talks with senior HR to improve the university’s policy and practices, and as part of that HR have identified hundreds of staff who should be on permanent contracts under the current policy. If you’ve been on a fixed-term contract which you think should be permanent, especially if you’ve been here more than three years or are on a subsequent contract, get in touch via ucu@leeds.ac.uk to arrange for a caseworker to discuss with you getting your contract made permanent.  Also, if you see posts advertised as fixed term when they don’t fit with existing policy (see section 2) contact us via ucu@leeds.ac.uk and we will try to get them changed to permanent roles.

Annual leave

The campus unions have been assured that the Annual Leave policy has not changed, including this bit “one week’s leave (pro-rata) may be carried forward for up to 3 months after the end of the leave year by agreement with the Dean of Faculty/Head of School”.  We agree that people need their holidays to recuperate, but not everyone is able to use all their leave, particularly related to Covid and the extra cohort of taught postgraduates.  If your local management is telling you things about carry forward of leave that you think are outside the policy, get in touch via ucu@leeds.ac.uk. 

Health and Safety

We are concerned to hear that there are an increasing numbers of Covid infections in the area around the university and are continuing to press management to be careful about further opening up of campus, particularly in the light of predictions of a third wave and how this might impact the university in the next few months. If you are worried about safety implications of work you are being asked to do, please get in touch via ucu@leeds.ac.uk.

See you soon!

Finally, Alan will shortly be emailing you with a link to our special USS pensions meeting tomorrow (Tuesday 29th June, 1-2 pm) and the agenda for our General Meeting on Monday 5th July (12 noon – 1 pm).  See you there!

In solidarity,

Ben

Ben Plumpton

Pronouns: She/Her/Hers

This page was last updated on 7 July 2021

Decisions of general meeting 10 March 2021

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

Members met on 10 March and made the following decisions as a branch. The full approved minutes were emailed to members and a copy is available from the honorary secretary or branch administrator.

Rule change motion for UCU Congress 2021: Amend Congress Standing Order 18 (quorum)

Delete “(subject to rounding up to the nearest whole number)”
Add at end:
“except where, by convention, the chair asks that only a subset of the branches in a sector should vote on the topic under discussion, in which case the quorum shall be a fraction of 150 members proportionate to membership in that subset. Quora shall be rounded up to the nearest whole number.”
Purpose:
To have a quorum for sector specific conferences on matters relating to a subset of the sector which is line with the membership of that subset.

Motions for UCU Congress 2021

The branch is allowed to submit one non-rule-change motion to UCU Congress 2021. The branch carried two motions: ‘financial disclosure and transparency’ and ‘Xinjiang and Chinese government oppression of the Uighurs’ and agreed to submit ‘financial disclosure and transparency’ to congress unless another branch submits that motion in which case this branch will submit ‘Xinjiang and Chinese government oppression of the Uighurs’.

Motion for UCU Congress 2021: Financial disclosure and transparency

Congress notes the series of issues relating to expenditure, some of which have caused debate within UCU and the media, including £400k of expenditure for a former General Secretary* which was subject of a non-disclosure agreement.
Congress resolves that:

  1. UCU National Executive Committee (NEC) must be provided with proposals for, and be involved in, expenditure decisions relating to:
    a. Redundancy payments or other non-standard payments to UCU employees
    b. Membership levies
    c. Consultancy contracts
  2. The honorary treasurer will report such expenditure to NEC as soon as possible before it has been incurred.

Motion for UCU Congress 2021: Xinjiang and Chinese government oppression of the Uighurs

Congress resolves to issue a statement and initiate a campaign in support of the Uighur population of Xinjiang, calling for the Chinese government to end the on-going forced mass imprisonment, alleged sterilisation, indoctrination, torture and oppression of the Uighur people.

Motion: Ending casual contracts and securing decent work with full employment protections for staff at Leeds: Reaffirming our anti-casualisation claim

This branch notes:

  • Two years ago, in January 2019, Leeds UCU branch lodged an anti-casualisation claim with the University.
  • The claim addressed growing levels of casualised work in all aspects of university employment through fixed-term contracts, worker contracts and hourly-paid staff, on the basis that insecure contracts are detrimental for staff. It also argued that teaching-focused staff should have 20% of time ring-fenced for scholarly activity.  Details here
  • The claim states the need for time-limited negotiations over these matters with the aim of revising university policy. 


This branch further notes:

  • Two years after its submission, the university has not formally negotiated the heads of claim with the UCU branch, although some elements of the claim are the subject of consultation between Leeds UCU and the university through HRTU.
  • Based on discussions of the claim in the anti-casualisation working group, the issues outlined in the claim remain and the branch continues to do work, through campaigning and casework to address them. 
  • we want to to send a strong and unified message to the university that the branch continues to see anti-casualisation as a high-priority and to support branch officers in their discussions with HR
  • The branch is aware that, in some instances staff who have been on FTCs for 3 years or more are being transferred onto “open-ended fixed-funded” contracts. These contracts are open only in name and offer no security to staff and potentially offer diminished protections against dismissal by broadening the scope of what would reasonably considered a ‘fair’ dismissal, by allowing the end of funding as a “permissible reason” for termination of contract.

This branch:

  • Reaffirms its commitment to the heads of claim outlined in the anti-casualisation claim of 2019, including: 
    • An end to the use of worker contracts
    • Fractionalisation of hourly-paid staff
    • Removing unequal treatment
    • Reduction of the use of fixed-term contracts
    • Teaching fellowship roles to contain at least 20% scholarly activity.
  • Rejects the use of Open-Ended Fixed-funded contracts as an alternative to fixed-term contracts and calls instead for staff who have been on FTCs for more than three years to be moved onto permanent contracts that are not conditional on funding.
  • Resolves to continue mobilising and organising members to put pressure on management to start formal negotiation of the claim with UCU as a matter of urgency

Motion: Oppose Leeds City Council’s decision to approve the Leeds Bradford Airport expansion

This branch notes:

  • The recent dismal decision of Leeds City Council (LCC) City Plans Panel to provisionally approve the expansion of Leeds Bradford Airport (LBA) to build a new terminal, leading to a substantial increase in flights and therefore carbon emissions.
  • Following this provisional approval, the University of Leeds’s UCU Climate and Ecological Emergency working group and University of Leeds climate and sustainability experts drafted a letter to the Secretary of State, Robert Jenrick MP, asking the Government to ‘call in’ (review) the planning application for the expansion of Leeds Bradford Airport. The letter was signed by over 100 people.
  • That the UK Climate Change Committee’s  Sixth Carbon Budget published in December 2020 states that (i) there should be no expansion of UK airport capacity unless the sector is on track to sufficiently outperform its net emissions trajectory (Table p8.1, p29) and (ii) the Government should assess its airport capacity strategy in the context of net-zero and any lasting impacts on demand from COVID-19 (para 2, p34). Expanding LBA would increase the flight passenger volume by 75%, exceeding the maximum growth compatible with the UK’s legally adopted net-zero target.
  • That an increase in international flights runs contrary to the UK’s climate targets and responsibilities to international climate mitigation as per the Climate Change Act and the Paris Agreement.
  • It also runs contrary to the findings of the Leeds Climate Commission citizens’ jury where 18 out of 21 citizens members believe that it was the wrong decision to expand LB airport.
  • That approving LBA expansion is in stark conflict with LCC’s decision to declare a Climate Emergency in May 2019 and makes the stated aim of Leeds being carbon neutral by 2030 practically impossible.
  • The planning application and the Planning Office report to Leeds City Plan Panel dramatically understated the climate impact of the expansion. University of Leeds experts found that in case of expansion, LBA’s climate impact would be almost four times larger than LBA claimed.
  • The critical role played by University of Leeds climate and sustainability experts who submitted detailed evidence of the full climate impact of LBA expansion during the consultation period to LCC.

This Branch believes:

  • The decision of LCC is an abdication of its civic duty to protect the citizens of Leeds from harmful effects of even more aeroplane emissions and pollution over the city, also exposing those under the flight path to more noise pollution
  • That it is our responsibility as an academic community with expertise in climate change, sustainability, and zero carbon futures to demonstrate leadership on climate change and oppose this decision and stand up for the wider community in Leeds to fight for a socially just transportation transition
  • That to tackle current unemployment and promote post-Covid recovery, job opportunities should instead be created in sustainable businesses, to progress cutting carbon emissions, such as creating green jobs to improve energy efficiency


Leeds University UCU therefore resolves: 

  1. To support the open letter drafted by the University’s UCU Climate and Ecological Emergency working group to the Secretary of State, Robert Jenrick MP, the branch president will write a follow up letter to Robert Jenrick MP.
  2. To support the Group for Action on Leeds Bradford Airport (Galba) in their attempts to make a legal challenge to this decision by making a donation of £200
  3. Forward this resolution to other UCU branches in the region, asking them to support this cause.

This page was last updated on 5 July 2021

National meetings – academic-related or casualised

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

Please contact ucu@leeds.ac.uk by 1st March if you would like to represent the branch at either of these events (to be held online):

This page was last updated on 22 February 2021

Anti-casualisation – get involved

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

Branch officers are continuing to push for fixed term contracts to only be used in very limited circumstances. We are having some success in particular areas, and we are also monitoring the university’s job adverts so that we can raise concerns at an early stage. If you would like to be involved with our anti-casualisation working group, which will be discussing and re-launching our anti-casualisation claim, please get in touch with our anti-casualisation officers, Xanthe Whittaker and Joanne Armitage.

This page was last updated on 22 February 2021

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.

This page was last updated on 5 July 2021

UCU levy, and job losses

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by 
Text of email from branch president Ben Plumpton to members on 26 June 2020

Dear members,

UCU levy

You will have seen the email today from Jo Grady, our General Secretary, about UCU taking a levy from members of £15 (in two instalments) for the Fighting Fund, so that the union can continue to support members taking industrial action. Obviously it’s important that the union can help members in this way: many members in our branch have been supported by the Fighting Fund over the recent strikes, and the union has prioritised low-paid and casualised staff in disbursing strike pay.  However, your branch committee is concerned about the lack of consultation on this, and that it wasn’t possible, according to the UCU rule book, to make this a progressive levy dependent on salary. We know many hourly paid, part time and low paid members will find this levy difficult to afford. (Note: members on the full free membership are excluded from the levy).  Some members have already offered to contribute to cover the levy for low paid members of this branch (thank you!), and we would be glad to hear from any other members who feel able to do the same. Also, the branch committee are going to propose to the next General Meeting that the rules of our local Hardship Fund (https://www.leedsucu.org.uk/local-hardship-fund/) should be changed so that it can be used for this purpose. Come to the General Meeting to have your say on this (Thursday 9th July 12 noon), and let us know (ucu@leeds.ac.uk) if you have questions or ideas about this.

Job losses in the sector

You will have heard of some pretty awful things going on across the higher and further education sectors, with some institutions announcing large scale redundancies, voluntary severance schemes, cuts to working hours or even ‘voluntary’ pay cuts. UCU is gearing up to fight this at a UK level, and to pressure government to secure the future of the post-16 education sector through government financial support (the “Fund the Future” campaign). Many from Leeds have attended online solidarity meetings called by a group of UCU branches where particularly drastic cuts and job losses have been announced. These branches, with their Twitter handles so you can show your support if you use Twitter, are:

A short video giving info from these branches is here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfUsHJ5dot0

We expect to see more national action on this soon.  

Follow @ucusolidarity on Twitter for up to date news.

Local update

For members on fixed term contracts coming to an end, let us know if you want UCU support in attending meetings with management/HR. We suspect end of contract letters are being sent out too freely when some of these posts will be renewed, because of course the work hasn’t gone away.

Leeds UCU officers are negotiating on job losses at university level. We’ve been sent lists of all the fixed term contracts due to end in the next few months, and we are arguing that ending these posts is

a) cruel, because in the current pandemic and hiring freezes, people are very unlikely to find new jobs (this is a particular problem for our migrant members whose visas will be affected) and

b) short-sighted, because the university needs these roles for the future.

Also Leeds has reserves and has saved itself a lot of money through the furlough scheme and through the university being largely closed for many months.

Initial discussions with management at last week’s Joint Committee of the University and UCU (JCUU) meeting indicated that they were quite receptive to these arguments. 
We have been sent formal letters about 240 job losses proposed in the period to September, including many on fixed term contracts and 28 on permanent contracts.  The three campus trade unions are pressing for a formal consultation on this, so that we can argue to protect those individuals, and we hope to prevent some or all of these job losses. 

HR have finally agreed to start talking to the unions about casualisation more generally (18 months after we submitted our anti-casualisation claim, see https://www.leedsucu.org.uk/ucu-anti-casualisation-claim-submitted-to-university-of-leeds/) and the first meeting about this is on 8th July.

The branch is also in discussions with HR/management on many other issues of concern to our members, including return to campus planning, health and safety, progressing anti-racism, working from home allowance, plans for one-off staff visits to campus, issues with pay for casualised staff in specific areas, organisational change, workloads, promotions, furlough, Metro cards and more. Our interventions in many of these areas (especially health and safety) have brought some improvement. There has also been a slight improvement on university communications, in that they are informing staff before they inform students, although not much before!

Thank you to all our reps and caseworkers who have been working hard to support members. And thank you to those who have recently volunteered to help their union in various ways (see my email last Friday “Your union needs you!”). And of course thanks to everyone for supporting each other – we need solidarity across roles, contract types and diverse backgrounds – together we are strong!

In solidarity,

Ben

Ben Plumpton
Pronouns: She/Her/Hers
University of Leeds UCU President
Latest Leeds UCU news at https://www.leedsucu.org.uk   or on Twitter https://twitter.com/leedsucu   

This page was last updated on 26 June 2020