LeedsUCU podcast episode 11: branch news 25 June 2024
LeedsUCU podcast episode 11: branch news 24 June 2024
In today’s episode (recorded 19 June): pay and grading review, freedom of expression protocol, review of HR policies, department rep elections
With Aisha Walker, Rachel Walls and Alan Smith.
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Transcript
Intro
Rachel
Welcome to the LeedsUCU podcast for members of the University of Leeds branch of the University and College Union. I’m Rachel Walls, one of your podcast hosts. I’m also a UCU department rep for Lifelong Learning Centre, branch committee member and saxophone or clarinet player in our occasional picket line band Orchestrike!
Alan
And I’m Alan Smith, co-host for this podcast, and the branch’s administrator and organiser. We thought it would be useful for members of the branch to have an alternative channel for getting your local news because reading long emails or website posts is not everyone’s first choice.
Rachel
So we’re here to be a friendly voice from the UCU University of Leeds branch to keep you in better touch with what is going on, such as what the elected officers are working on and what opportunities there are for you to get involved in UCU discussions, socialising, activism and decision making.
[Brief music]
Hey everyone, we’re joined by Aisha Walker today, president of the University of Leeds branch of UCU, to give us the latest news. Hi Aisha
Aisha
Hi, Rachel.
Rachel
We also have Alan.
Rachel
Hi, Alan.
Alan
Hi, Rachel. Hi, Aisha. So the first thing we want to ask you about Aisha is the pay and grading review where we know that negotiations have been going on.
Aisha
Yeah, and this is really exciting actually, Alan, as you know, and I hope that our members also know, back in 2022, we had a marking and assessment boycott. The ballot for the marking and assessment boycott was disaggregated, which means that each branch voted individually and not every branch won the ballot to take part in the action. But we did. And our management agreed that if we stood down the marketing and assessment boycott, they would engage with us on various issues. One of them was pay and grading, another one was casualization. And we’ve been seeing the fruits of that. Again, it’s not perfect, but we have actually significantly reduced the use of casual contracts at Leeds. Another one was workloads, so we have workload principles in place. Also not perfect yet, but it’s progress. It’s all progress. So they also agreed to talk about pay and grading and what this means is looking at where the different grades sit on the overall pay spine. So the pay spine is determined centrally between UCEA, which is the universities’ body, the employer body, and the unions. And there are actually 5 unions involved nationally in the negotiations, but we have three different unions at Leeds so there’s UCU, there’s Unison and there’s Unite. So we are all taking part in local talks with the Leeds management to try and revise where the different grades sit on the pay spine. So how much money somebody earns in at each point in each grade. So this isn’t about regrading jobs. If you’re Grade 8 at the moment you’ll still be grade 8 after the review. But where you sit on the pay spine hopefully will be different. A lot of this is still very highly confidential. We’ve heard a couple of proposals, good proposals, I mean it’s looking really promising. We’ve had a couple of proposals from management, but there are still some details to work through. So we are still working on it jointly. At some point there will be some joint communications from the university and the unions to explain what the final proposal is, and at that point we’ll be organising a general meeting. We’ve got one pencilled in for the 11th of July. I think a notice went out about that this morning. So when we will be again explaining it and we’ll be taking a vote because we’re going to put this to the membership in the hope that it’s good enough for you to feel that you can agree to it.
Alan
So does this affect the national pay bargaining?
Aisha
No, it doesn’t. It absolutely doesn’t. The national pay bargaining will hopefully give us a percentage rise, and that is completely different from what we’re doing here at Leeds. This is not about giving people a percentage pay rise. Is about changing where the grades are on the national pay spine. So the national pay spine is decided in the national bargaining. We’re just looking at how that is implemented here at Leeds.
Alan
OK, so we should find out more about that from the negotiating team before the general meeting on the 11th of July hopefully?
Aisha
We certainly should.
Alan
Excellent, right. I look forward to that. And the next thing that I want to ask you about was freedom of expression. We understand that the university has been putting some proposals around that.
Aisha
Well, the university already has a freedom of expression protocol, but it’s not actually compliant with the most recent legislation and the most recent advice coming from the Office for Students, so we’ve had a draught of a revised freedom of expression protocol. So that’s been sent to the unions and we need to give our feedback to the university on that. And the intention is that should be compliant with Office for Students and current legislation. I can’t say that we don’t have concerns. There are concerns, so hopefully those will be ironed out before it’s finally approved.
Rachel
Well, thanks for that explanation and we’ll keep our eyes peeled. We wondered what had been going on with regards to reviewing HR policies recently.
Aisha
Well, all of the universities policies are under review, and they should be. I mean, it’s something that should be done regularly, and they are reviewing them with the unions. And we just saw – and when I say just, I mean on Friday, it’s Wednesday today when we’re recording this, and this was last Friday – we saw terms of reference for the policy review, so that’s the stage that we’re at, is agreeing terms of reference –
Rachel
Early days!
Aisha
– but every policy will be under review. Some of these are matters for consultation and some of them are matters for negotiation. And that’s an important difference, because anything that has to be negotiated with the unions also has to be agreed by our union’s central organisation, and that’s the same for all three of us.
Rachel
OK. So at this point, just business as usual then getting on with the – a
Aisha
Well, yeah. But you know, if you have any comments on university policies, do send them in because at some point they will be reviewed with the unions. So you know, if you’re finding that things like annual leave or parental leave or – what else have we got? – sickness policy, everything. Absolutely everything that is a policy – dignity and mutual respect. They’re all going to be reviewed at some point.
Rachel
Great. So it’s a good time for feedback. If you want to e-mail ucu@leeds.ac.uk.
Aisha
That’s the one.
Rachel
Another thing that is still happening is department rep elections.
Aisha
Yes, we have had, actually, we’ve got a lot of new departmental reps or some of them are actually returning departmental reps, some of them are new. I think Alan has just sent a list. So congratulations to everybody who has been elected as a departmental rep and thank you very much for putting yourself forward
Rachel
Yeah.
Aisha
Forward. Unfortunately, the deadline for the elections coincided with a really, really busy marking period. So we’ve got a deadline for additional nominations, which is Monday the 1st of July. So if you can have a look at the list that Alan sent out and if your department, if your area, doesn’t yet have representation, consider putting yourself forward, or consider who you might want to nominate as a rep. I know I’ve said this before, but it really is useful for your area to have a rep it keeps us in touch with what’s happening in your area and it enables you to feed back to your area what’s going on centrally. If you have a representative, team of representatives, you will get better representation from your union and the reason for that is simply that we know what’s going on.
Rachel
Yeah. And speaking as a department rep myself, I go to a meeting with other reps and I hear what’s going on from them and I can feedback what’s going on in my department and it’s not an onerous job, it’s a nice job where people know you. So I always recommend being a department rep and I believe that e-mail went out last night this morning, so it’s quite fresh in your inboxes I think. So have a look at that as soon as you can. So moving on, I guess we’ll look at what’s coming up. So we have a social coming up. Aisha, do you want to say a little bit about that and anything else that’s coming up?
Aisha
We’ve got another lunchtime social it’s on the 26th of June 1 till 2. It’s a bring your own lunch, but it’s in the Ziff. What used to be the Ziff Cafe. I can never make the Wednesday lunch time socials, we have our meeting with HR at that time. But I hope you all have a great time there.
Rachel
Ah. Yeah, so, level 10, I believe is where the cafe used to be. And yeah, you can, you can get things from vending machines,
Aisha
Level 9
Rachel
Is it level 9, OK?
Aisha
I think – it might be level 10, I don’t know.
Rachel
I think it’s level 10!
Aisha
Because there’s this peculiar thing in the university where the levels are based on the contour line, so level 9 in in the newer buildings is actually the same height above sea level wherever you are in the university. But it could be the ground floor of the building that you’re in.
Rachel
Yes. That’s right, as in the case with Ziff.
Alan
Yeah. And we all navigate by height above sea level, don’t we? I think that’s.
Aisha
We totally do!
Rachel
Well, I think that’s everything for this week, isn’t it? Or is there any last kind of comments from Aisha?
Aisha
No, I think that’s everything.
Rachel
Well, we hope to see you at the general meeting. On Thursday the 11th of July 1245, keep your eye on your inboxes for news of that pay and grading review, and yeah, even sooner than that, the lunch time social Wednesday, the 26th at 1:00 in the Ziff.
Alan
Thanks Aisha.
Rachel
Bye.
[Brief music]
Outro
Rachel
That’s all for today’s LeedsUCU podcast. Thank you for listening. Please subscribe on whatever platform you’re listening to us on, so you’ll know as soon as we publish our next episode.
Alan
If you’re not yet a member of UCU, head to ucu.org.uk/join to find out more if you work at the University of Leeds in an academic or academic related, professional or managerial role, or as a postgraduate student doing paid teaching. Wherever you work, make sure you join the union for your workplace.
Rachel
This podcast is made on behalf of the committee of the University and College Union, University of Leeds Branch. If you have any questions or concerns, please e-mail our branch offices at ucu@leeds.ac.uk. See our website leedsucu.org.uk for alternative contact details and for a transcript of this episode.
This page was last updated on 25 June 2024