Text of email sent to branch members by branch president Ben Plumpton on 20 August 2020

Dear members,

I hope you are coping OK in these difficult times and that you and your families and friends are well.  There’s a lot to update you on  – so read on!  Also look out for a separate email with news about annual leave.  

Contents:
1. Redundancies and ending of fixed term contracts
2. Health and safety update
3. New university organisational change and redundancy policies
4. Return to campus questionnaire
5. Working from home costs
6. Could you offer to become a caseworker?
7. UCU levy
8. Elections to Senate
9. Fund the Future
10. Next Vice President of UCU
11. What next on our Four Fights dispute?
12. UCU webinars, and how to get involved

1. Redundancies and ending of fixed term contracts

Management told us they were intending to make 28 redundancies of staff employed for more than 4 years by the end of October, and a further 10 by the end of February.  Some of these have now been averted after extensions and redeployments, but we are urgently asking for discussions with management about the individuals remaining under threat in order to avoid redundancies.  In addition large numbers of staff on fixed term contracts are seeing their contracts come to an end, and although many were renewed earlier in the year, we are concerned that many of these colleagues are at serious risk now. We have been arguing that the university has a moral, academic, practical and financial duty to renew these contracts. Contract renewals have to be agreed by the Head of School/Faculty and approved by the University Executive Group, and we are supporting many members in arguing their cases. We gather that management are waiting to see how student admissions go, including international students, but we need to be ready in case of any proposals in the autumn for significant job cuts or pay cuts like some other universities are doing.  Let us know (ucu@leeds.ac.uk) if you need casework support on this.

2. Health and safety update

Neil Maughan, our Health and Safety Officer, has been in constant contact with university Health and Safety staff, along with his equivalents from the other campus trade unions, to ensure that appropriate measures are taken to protect those staff and students already on campus, and for those returning to campus. This includes for example re-opening of buildings, provision of face masks, social distancing guidance, use of office space, ‘track and trace’ and testing on campus.  We’ll update you more soon.

3. New university organisational change and redundancy policies

Branch officers have been in discussions for some time with HR and in negotiations with management at JCUU (the Joint Committee of the University and UCU) about these new policies. Some improvements have been made to the original proposals, but there were serious issues remaining unresolved. Management have nevertheless imposed these policies by passing them at University Council in July. Yesterday’s email from Internal Comms might imply that your union had agreed these policies – this is not the case, and nor are we happy with the approach of imposing rather than reaching agreement through negotiation. The imposed redundancy policy is at http://www.leeds.ac.uk/secretariat/ordinances.html#XXVI and the imposed organisational change policy is at https://hr.leeds.ac.uk/download/downloads/id/48/policy_for_implementing_an_organisational_restructure

4. Return to campus questionnaire

A questionnaire is being used to collect information so that local management can plan how the return to campus can be done whilst protecting those staff and their families who have health or other concerns that would make campus more risky for them. Managers are supposed to plan work so that staff without such concerns could be asked to return sooner than those at risk, so collecting this data will avoid guesses based on partial or inaccurate knowledge. If you are uneasy about sharing this information with your manager, perhaps worried about how the information might be used in future, you can request a confidential conversation with your local HR Manager instead of filling in the form. Then the HR manager will tell the Head of School/Service if you shouldn’t be among the first returning to campus, without giving all the details. We are asking for some improvements to this form, for example about the questions on caring responsibilities, where it says the expectation is that, if a family member can cover caring responsibilities you should say caring responsiblities have no impact on your return to campus. Families have been sharing and juggling care responsibilities under great pressure for many months, and it’s likely that other family members are also employed so wouldn’t be able to take over caring. The form should also include issues relevant to migrant staff. 

5. Working from home costs

We are still trying to get management to compensate staff for additional costs of working from home, particularly where these costs are significant. And this will become more important once heating costs increase. Watch out for updates on this.

6. Could you offer to become a caseworker?

There are a lot of members seeking union support at the moment, and our existing caseworkers are mostly at full capacity, so this sadly often means a delay in getting a caseworker. UCU HQ have offered to put on a special online casework course for us, if 15 members want to do it. The course will taught over 3 weeks with 3 course meetings and some pre-course work, dates and times to be confirmed. Going on the course doesn’t commit you to becoming a caseworker, it would be suitable for anyone thinking they might be interested and wanting to know more. Email ucu@leeds.ac.uk if this could be you!

7. UCU levy

You’ll remember that UCU nationally announced a levy of members to replenish the Fighting Fund which provides financial support to members taking strike action. This branch and many others wanted to avoid lower paid members being charged the levy. After donations from branches (Leeds gave £15,000 as agreed at the last branch General Meeting) and individual members, those earning under £20,000 will now be exempt from the levy. Our branch also agreed to cover the levy for any members earning under £30,000 or who are in particular difficulty and who request it.  To request this, once the levy has been taken from your account, please email ucu@leeds.ac.uk with the subject “Levy request”, including a screenshot of your bank statement showing the levy and your bank details. Some generous members offered to pay the levy for low paid members – if this was you, thank you very much but that’s not now needed, perhaps you could donate to the national Fighting Fund? (https://www.ucu.org.uk/fightingfund) 

8. Elections to Senate

An election has just been announced for faculty-specific places for next year. We’d encourage members to stand – it’s important for there to be independent voices on Senate able to raise issues important to staff. Sadly, there are often unfilled places which is a shame for democracy. If you are considering standing and would like a chat about what it’s like, email ucu@leeds.ac.uk and we’ll put you in touch with a newish senator. General info about Senate is at http://www.leeds.ac.uk/secretariat/senate.html  And of course, once voting starts (electronically), please use your vote.NB Academic-related staff who aren’t in a faculty need to ‘affiliate’ themselves to a faculty for the purpose of these elections. To do this, email Helen Pickersgill in the Secretariat (h.j.pickersgill@adm.leeds.ac.uk) specifying which faculty you want to be affiliated to.

9. Fund the Future

You will have seen emails from Jo Grady, the UCU General Secretary, about UCU’s Fund the Future campaign, to get the government to sensibly fund post-16 education. Please help this campaign by writing to your MP, which is easy to do using the online tool at https://fundthefuture.org.uk/your-mp/

10. Next Vice President of UCU

Don’t forget to vote in this UCU election! The elected Vice President will become President in 2023-24. There is also an election for an LGBT+ represenative.  Voting papers should have arrived in the post to your home address a while ago – if you can’t find them, get a replacement at https://www.ucu.org.uk/election-ballot-request. The candidates’ statements are at https://www.ucu.org.uk/cvs-elections, also with a video hustings where you can hear about the candidates’ priorities for UCU and watch them answering questions from members. Deadline for voting is 15th September.

11. What next on our Four Fights dispute?

The result of the consultative ballot on whether to accept the employers’ ‘final offer’ was to reject it. The union needs to decide what to do next, and a special online Higher Education Sector Conference on this has been called for 30th September. We will have our first branch General Meeting of the academic year earlier than usual, on Tuesday 15th September, in order to elect delegates and agree any motions the branch wants to submit to that conference. Please put the date in your diary now!

12. UCU webinars, and how to get involved

Last but by no means least, UCU has been holding some excellent online webinars to discuss key issues for the union. These are recorded and can be watched via UCU’s YouTube channel at https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCQVEcHoeCPvfwlv_Hof1TeA  The one on supporting migrant staff features our branch Equality Officer, Dima Chami, and committee member Laura Loyola-Hernandez, who were involved in setting up UCU’s Migrant Members’ Standing Committee. Watch these, be inspired, and contact ucu@leeds.ac.uk to join one of our branch working groups! (Groups include Equality, Anti-casualisation, Workloads, Disability, Recruitment & Organising, Action Group, University Finance, Climate & Ecological Emergency).  Want to do something for the union but don’t have much time?  Talk to a colleague and ask them to join UCU – the more members we have, the stronger we will be and the more able to support you and to challenge/prevent future management appallingness.

Thank you for reading all this, thank you for everything you do for the union, and do get in touch if you have any concerns or queries (email ucu@leeds.ac.uk for support).

I hope you have some good times over the (rest of the) summer, and I look forward to seeing you at the next UCU General Meeting on 15th September.

In solidarity,

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

This page was last updated on 26 August 2020