LeedsUCU podcast episode 5: branch news, 15 March 2024
In today’s episode (recorded 13 March): pay and grading review, ways of working, Home Office visa changes, gender, ethnicity and disability pay gaps, the next general meeting and the AGM in May.
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Episode transcript
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 the 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
We’re here to be a friendly voice from the UCU University of Leeds branch to keep you better in 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. Today we’re face to face in the studio, supported by the brilliant Joanne Armitage in producer role and without Alan Smith for a whole list of complicated reasons we won’t get into in this podcast, but he can’t be in the studio this afternoon. We’re joined by Aisha Walker, president of the University of Leeds branch of UCU, to give us the latest news. Hi, Aisha.
Aisha
Hi, Rachel. And it’s good to be seeing you in person rather than just over a screen.
Rachel
Yeah, absolutely. And so hopefully this podcast will sound even better than usual. Just we’ve got proper equipment for once, but yeah, we’ve got lots to talk about. And one of those things we thought we’d ask is what’s been happening with pay and grading recently.
Aisha
Well, the review is under way and that’s good news. I was able to send some information to committee, but I’m afraid that it is confidential. It’s not something that we can talk about with a wider audience just yet. We’ve got another meeting next week. I think it’s going to take some time to go through the process. But I do hope that we will be able to give you some news, actual, concrete news in the not too distant future.
Rachel
Fantastic. Well, it’s good to know some progress has been made. How about the ways of working? Any updates on that?
Aisha
Well, we had a really useful discussion at the general meeting on Tuesday. Obviously, there’s a range of views and a lot of people like working on campus and want to be on campus, and we don’t want to stop people working on campus. We don’t want to discourage it. But we also want to make sure that people are working in the space that is most appropriate for them. So we’re still talking with management about the ways of working. One thing I would really like to stress is that the university has guidance about ways of working and about the amount of time you might spend on campus. This is not a mandate, so we have heard that some schools have told staff members that they have to be on campus for at least three days a week, and this is not the university’s position. The university’s position is that they would like people to be on campus for the majority of their working time, but this has to be, you know, it has to be appropriate to their own personal circumstances, to the needs of the work that they’re doing, the needs of the and the facilities and the resources in in the place where they’re working. So if you’re having problems with this, please do contact your local Rep or e-mail ucu@leeds.ac.uk. We’re also hearing about the hybrid working space, the project in, and the Worsley Building, and one of our reps will be, next week, will be going and have a walk around that space and then we should be able to next podcast and the next time I speak to you we should have some more news about what’s going on in that project and how effective the new working spaces might be for our members.
Rachel
Brilliant. And I think we have a department reps meeting next Tuesday. So if you do have any concerns to take to your rep, then the timing is quite good in the next few days.
Aisha
Yes, because your Rep will be able to bring them to the meeting and that, by the way, is one of the real benefits of having a departmental Rep. Is they can bring your concerns. To the reps meeting. To tell officers about your concerns in an anonymized way and we can then pass them on to management. So if you haven’t got a Rep in your department, this is what you’re missing out on.
Rachel
Yeah, perhaps a good time to think about nominations in the run up to the next time we elect them, in May I think. Brilliant. So another thing that we wanted to ask you about was corporate processes and systems service transformation. I understand management, I’ve been talking to us about high level transformation in this area. What can you tell us about that at this stage, if anything?
Aisha
Actually not a huge amount. We did have a presentation last week at our meeting with HR. It is still at a very high level and the idea behind this is that it should enable all of the he systems that we use to manage our working life, should make them run together much more smoothly. So things like expenses and timesheets for those who have them and booking leave. But it still is actually a project that seems to be at a very early stage and still very much they’re working out how to make it work, so there’s not a lot of concrete detail yet, but when we have more news, obviously we’ll bring it to you.
Rachel
Thank you. A complete change of topic now, but I know UCU has raised with the university how they’re going to support staff when the Home Office brings in new visa rules from 11th of April. Can you tell us any more about that and how the university management have responded so far?
Aisha
You won’t be surprised to hear me say that the answer to the question what is the university doing is not enough. Really the only thing that we’ve had from the university is something that you’ll already know about, actually, if you are on a visa, which is that there is a loan of you, you can get a loan to pay for your visa. But obviously you’ve then got to pay it back. We think the university could do a lot more. Support students, sorry, staff on visas and their families. And there are other universities which do better. So we’re just continuing to press on this because it is something that concerns us. This is and it is an international University. You know we need we are doing and we need to be doing internationally excellent research. We have an international student population and in order to do this we need an international staff and that means people on visas and that means the university needs to support people on visas and not just them, but also their families. And to support people with the iniquitous NHS surcharge. So we would really like to see the university do a lot more to support our colleagues on visas.
Rachel
Thank you. So Next up, the university is about to publish its gender, ethnicity and disability pay gaps, and we’ll go more into detail about these after they’ve been published. But I know information has been shared with you. See you and the other campus unions. Have you got any initial comments?
Aisha
I think one thing that’s quite important is that the university, in a lot of areas doesn’t have enough data. And by that I mean enough data shared by staff members. So for example with ethnicity, disability, gender, particularly people who are non-binary, sexuality. These are things that the university – you don’t have to give the university this data, a lot of people don’t, and so it is difficult for the university to be really sure of what the pay gaps are in those areas. I think you know there are – Well, actually the pay gap data is interesting and it will be made public and the university has a new system or they’re bringing in a new system for making the data public, which will make it a lot easier to interrogate the data and I strongly advise that once it is published, which will happen at the end of the month, that you have a look at it. And have a good trawl through the data. We do have concerns and one of the concerns that we’ve raised with the university is about the pay gaps at sort of grade 6 to 8 and what this signifies – its gender pay gaps particularly but there is also an ethnicity pay gap there – what this signifies about professional staff and the lack of opportunity for promotion for professional staff. And we spoke with the university about that this morning, so.
Rachel
Fantastic. Yeah. So that is what’s been happening. Perhaps now we can talk a bit about what’s coming up for members of the branch.
Aisha
Yep, we’ve got, you’ll be excited to know that we’re going to have general meetings. The next ordinary general meeting is on Monday 29th of April, and it’s at it’s at the usual time of 12.45. If you want to submit a motion to that meeting, then the deadline is 12 noon on the 16th of April, and I know that seems ages away, but we’ve got the vacation and public holidays in the middle of that, and Eid celebrations for those who are celebrating. And in fact, I should have started by saying Ramadan Mubarak to all our Muslim members. The timing of the next general meeting means that members can submit rule changes to it. So if you are concerned about the rules of the Union, have a good look through. You can submit rule change motions, as well as ordinary motions. And by the time this meeting comes along, we expect UCU to have published its agenda for Congress, which will be at the end of May. We have got a motion that we’re sending to Congress, but I think it’s really important that we all have a look through the Congress agenda because if there are any amendments that we might want to submit to Congress motions. Then the next meeting on the 29th of April will be the meeting to deal with that so deadline at noon on Tuesday the 16th of April, and the next meeting after that. And this seems to have come round incredibly quickly will be the AGM. So if you are wanting to send to be part of the committee next year, this is the time to start thinking about it. Any member of committee will be happy to talk to you about what it’s like being on the committee and if you want an early taste. We do still have some vacancies for co-opted members. We are still looking for someone to take a lead on issues for members with disabilities, on issues pertaining to black members, and issues about women members. So we do still have some vacancies for co opted members, but if you want to be elected to committee, you’re thinking of being of standing as an officer, the AGM will be on Thursday the 16th of May.
Rachel
Brilliant. And that’s, yeah, 12.45 again till 2PM. And if you want to know about the roles available, we do have them on our website and as a committee member, I will say I’d be happy to talk to anyone if they wanted to know more about my experience. So thank you very much Aisha. Any final thoughts for this episode?
Aisha
Thank you, Rachel. And well, I think there’s a lot going on at this time and some of you may know that there is a there are some students occupying the Parkinson court. I know that they will be very glad for anybody who wants to drop by and find out what they’re doing and any messages of support or solidarity. But these are really difficult times for the world, for the university and for the branch. So let’s just hang in there and carry on being kind and considerate to each other. And I will see you again in a couple of weeks.
Rachel
Thank you very much, Aisha and thank you for bringing us all the branch news. See you soon. Bye!
Aisha
Bye!
Rachel
That’s all for today’s Leeds UCU 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. 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 email our branch officers 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 16 March 2024