You may be aware of this communication from university management on the progress on fixed term contracts. While we welcome the advancement that has been made by the university management on this front, we would like to note several points:

• The aim of the policy as communicated to the trade unions is to reduce the number of staff on fixed term contracts by 50%. While this is significant, it should be noted that it doesn’t cover all staff on fixed term contracts. A communication was sent to staff on fixed term contracts yesterday, and here is the link to FAQs that better explain some of the key policy elements developed by the university management team.
• While it is true that the campus trade unions have been consulted, we feel there is still significant work to be done by the university. Our UCU branch committee is working with our local anti-casualisation working group, and with the UCU bargaining and negotiation team, to provide comprehensive feedback on the policy draft that has been shared with us so far. We note that significant concerns remain for negotiation and discussion.

We do hope that the university management will take our concerns seriously and continue working with us towards reducing the use of casualized contracts at the University of Leeds. If you have any questions, you can get in touch with us (ucu@leeds.ac.uk) or you can get involved in the anti-casualization working group (get in touch with branch anti-casualisation officer Marina Baldissera Pacchetti)

This post is from an email sent to members by branch president Chloe Wallace on Thursday 30 March 2023