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

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

Leeds University UCU response to the University’s student education delivery plans for 2021/22

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

Leeds University UCU welcomes the recognition by the University that there is still much uncertainty between now and September, when the next academic year begins. Whilst vaccine progress has been positive, at the time of writing there is a new variant of concern– variant B 2.167.2 – which currently appears to be more transmissible and there may be more variants of concern to come. SAGE – the Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies – have stated consistently that there is a high likelihood of a resurgence in hospitalisations and death, either if the vaccine roll out hits problems, or if policies and behaviours adopted to reduce transmission are relaxed too early.

It appears very clear to us that, whilst academic year 2021-22 will be different from 2020-21, it will not represent ‘back to normal’ and we are pleased that the University is recognising this in planning.

We therefore believe that it is appropriate for the university to maintain a hybrid approach to learning and teaching, ensuring that it remains possible to retain COVID mitigations, such as social distancing, well ventilated spaces and hygiene measures. All plans need to allow for the possibility of moving online only if the worst happens and there is serious resurgence of cases.

It is particularly important that all university plans allow staff or students who test positive for COVID-19 to self-isolate immediately, as that will be critical in keeping case numbers low. We also note that, even after a vaccine roll-out, it remains the case that some staff and students are more vulnerable to the effects of COVID-19; the university has a duty of care towards those people to allow them to work flexibly and not to put themselves at risk.

The successes of this academic year are down to the tremendous efforts of all staff on the ground, whether they be student education service staff, library and digital education service staff, staff in residences, cleaning staff, academics and many others. Whilst for some the end of the academic year is in sight, for others the intensity continues over the summer teaching and supporting postgraduates, managing admissions and many other things. This magnificent effort should not be taken for granted by management. In many cases, it has been at the expense of work/life balance, family life, and general health and well being. In planning for next year, the university needs to ensure that workloads are healthy and reasonable, that the differential impacts of this ongoing crisis on different groups of staff are recognised and acted upon, and that staff are not subject to the devastation of redundancy, whether they are on ‘permanent’ or fixed term contracts.

This page was last updated on 7 July 2021

Health and safety in libraries

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

Library staff remain seriously concerned about the health and safety implications of Library study space being open to students.

Two motions were overwhelmingly passed at last week’s emergency general meeting supporting Library colleagues, which you can read at leedsucu.org.uk/members-vote-to-call-to-close-library-study-spaces

Members at the meeting were keen to ensure that the university provides study space for students with essential needs, and our library reps emphasised the part of the motions which calls for the use of unstaffed and remotely monitored study space such as computer clusters rather than libraries.

The branch will be calling for a UK-wide campaign by UCU to close library study spaces and return libraries to a click and collect service.

This page was last updated on 24 March 2021

Members vote to call to close library study spaces

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

UCU members have voted in an emergency meeting today (9 February 2021) to call on the university to close library study spaces and make alternative, unstaffed study spaces available to students who have that essential need. Members also agreed a motion to the union’s national academic-related and professional staff meeting to highlight the need of UCU to focus more nationally on the needs of academic-related staff working on campus during the pandemic.

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This page was last updated on 5 July 2021

Library staff receive no reply from VC about safety concerns

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

On 18 January over 100 library staff at University of Leeds wrote to the vice chancellor about the decision to keep library study spaces open when the risk from covid-19 is so high. Following a weekend which has seen thousands more students return to Leeds, they have still not had a reply, other than: “Thank you for your email.”

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This page was last updated on 27 January 2021

Supporting schoolteachers by reducing university workloads

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

The UCU branch committee sends our thanks and support to schoolteachers in the National Education Union whose refusal to work in dangerous conditions forced the government to move more quickly in moving most school teaching online. Their action has made us all more safe.

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This page was last updated on 25 January 2021

New lockdown

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

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

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

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This page was last updated on 25 January 2021

Motions passed at General Meeting on 22 October 2020

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

Members of the branch agreed the following motions at the General Meeting on 22 October 2020.

Redundancies

This branch instructs its officers and committee to organise the necessary steps to mobilise the branch to stop any proposed redundancies in the Faculties of Medicine and Health and Biological Sciences.

Motion to UCU LGBT+ members’ conference – Campaign for GRA reforms and against asylum seeker persecution

Conference notes that the rise of the alt right and political scapegoating has led to a very significant rise in LGBT+ hate crime and a consequent rise in LGBT+ asylum seekers.
Conference further notes the failure of the Government to implement the Gender Recognition Act (GRA) reforms.

Conference resolves:

  1. To raise the profile of the UCU campaign for reform of the GRA.
  2. To campaign for an end to the persecution of asylum seekers.

Motion to UCU Women members’ conference – Caring responsibilities during the pandemic

Conference notes that:

  • Many members, often women, have caring responsibilities for children or for family members who are older, ill or disabled.
  • COVID-19 has particularly impacted carers’ ability to work their full contracted hours, due for example to children being home because of nursery/school outbreaks, difficulty in arranging tests, and needing to support household members who have symptoms or are otherwise required to isolate.
  • This is not a temporary problem which can be accommodated through normal carers’ or parental leave policies.
  • Expecting carers to fit their full contracted hours around caring responsibilities, i.e. by working evenings and weekends, is unacceptable and will result in health problems.


Conference resolves that:

  • UCU should develop guidance for branches on negotiating policies for:
    • safe flexible working and additional special leave for carers during the pandemic
    • no career detriment through carers being unable to achieve expected research outputs or other objectives.

Re-affiliation and online subscription to Labour Research Department publications

This branch notes that the Labour Research Department is an independent research organisation which has provided information and resources for trades unions reps and negotiators for over 100 years.

This branch believes that Labour Research Department (LRD) booklets including Law At Work are a valuable resource on employment law and best practices for trade union reps.

This branch agrees to re-affiliate to Labour Research Department and to re-subscribe to LRD booklets online on an annual basis, the cost to be set by the Labour Research Department, except that if the cost goes above £500 this will be reconsidered at a General Meeting.

Re-affiliation to Leeds Trades Unions Council

This branch notes:

  • That Leeds Trades Unions Council (Leeds TUC) is, and has been for a century and a half, a valued way for members of local trade union branches from different workplaces across the city to work together on common issues at a grass roots level, to support each other, and to celebrate and promote the work of trades unions in the city.
  • That Trades Council delegate meetings take place on the last Wednesday of the month (except December), starting at 7pm at the Swarthmore Education Centre, Woodhouse Square, Leeds, and that this branch is entitled to send up to ten delegates to the meetings.


This branch agrees:

  • To re-affiliate to Leeds TUC on an annual basis, cost to be set by Leeds TUC, except that if the cost goes above £500 this will be reconsidered at a General Meeting.
  • That the committee should appoint up to ten delegates to represent the branch at Leeds TUC each year.

This page was last updated on 5 July 2021

Coronovirus cases still too high and teaching continues despite SAGE advice

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

Today the University released figures suggesting the cases of Coronovirus reported in the last week numbered 269 new cases. They have also added 82 additional cases to last week’s total, due to late reporting, bringing that figure to 640. It seems the additional control measures are not doing enough. Face to Face teaching and student support are still going on in some parts of the University despite the large number of cases reported a week ago, and since last week’s initial publication of numbers, there have been no further policy changes or communications about teaching. Furthermore, we are concerned about the possibility of under-reporting meaning that the real figures could be much higher.

The University of Leeds are still working on the basis that schools/services can decide whether teaching/support is safe and pedagogically necessary. Given the looseness of this guidance, inconsistent practices continue, although we welcome that some schools have reduced or removed on campus teaching and events. Nonetheless, teaching and support staff are still being asked to come in, and we are particularly concerned for colleagues on fractional contracts and PGR teaching staff who may be compelled to teach on campus or lose their income. In the emergency meeting on the 1st of October, a motion was passed stating we will register a dispute with Leeds University management if they insist on proceeding with coercion of staff into face to face activity, deeming it to be in breach of the university policy on Dignity and Mutual Respect.

On Monday night it was revealed that the government’s scientific advisers recommended three weeks ago that all university and college teaching should be online unless face to face sessions were absolutely necessary. We are frustrated that University leaders are not listening to either to this scientific advice or UCU, who have been calling for a move online since even earlier in September.

UCU continue to support colleagues who are being asked to teach or do other face to face work on campus but feel unsafe to do so. Please speak with your local rep or contact ucu@leeds.ac.uk for support if you are in this situation. Branch officers will continue to use our meetings with University management to call for an end to in-person activities. An ordinary general meeting is scheduled for next Thursday 22nd of October for further discussion amongst members.

This page was last updated on 24 June 2021