In today’s episode (recorded 8 May, published late because: reasons): PGRs who teach, hybrid working as a flexible working request, 3-days-on-campus not-rule, pay and grading review, UCU higher education special sector conference, AGM, new starters meetings 

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] 

Rachel 

Hello everyone. We’re joined by Aisha Walker, president of the University of Leeds branch of UCU, to give us the latest news. 

Alan 

Hi everyone. So the first thing we wanted to ask you about was fractional contracts for PGR’s who teach because I know that’s something we’ve raised with the university recently. 

Aisha 

Yes, we have. So one of the things that we’ve heard from our departmental reps is that in some areas there are problems with PGR’s that are doing time sheets or are hourly paid getting their pay in a timely fashion. And obviously, PGR’s are not people who are earning loads of money, they haven’t got loads of money. We really, they really, need to get that pay through. So we’re asking the university to put people onto fractional contracts rather than hourly paid. We don’t have an answer about that yet, but hopefully you know, watch this space. 

Alan 

OK. And the next thing was hybrid working, but hybrid working as a formal flexible working request. 

Aisha 

Yes. So at the moment we’ve got an anomaly in the flexible working policy in that it doesn’t talk about hybrid working because a separate hybrid working policy. We understand is in development. But both the government and Acas say that you can request hybrid working as a form of flexible working, and we have had examples of people who have put in requests for hybrid working, so for example, to be able to work from home on Tuesdays and Wednesdays but have been told that they can’t do this, that they’ve just got to make an informal arrangement with the line manager, which obviously only works as long as you’ve got the same line manager. So we have asked the university to look at this and to make sure that you can put in a request for hybrid working a formal request. So that it can be a formalised arrangement in the same way as if you were changing from full time to working four days a week. 

Alan 

So in the meantime, while their policy doesn’t say that, are we still saying to people put in those requests and you should reasonably expect them to be agreed because that’s what the law says? And if not, come to a union rep? 

Aisha 

That’s exactly right, Alan. Yes, we should be. You know, if that’s what you need. If you need to be working from home on a certain number of days, a week or on certain days, make the request. Make the request as a form of flexible working. It should be considered. It should be given reasonable consideration. And if it doesn’t meet the criteria for refusal, which it quite probably won’t, but somebody says you can’t do this as a formal arrangement, then contact the usual e-mail, ucu@leeds.ac.uk. 

Rachel 

Thank you. That’s. Sounds positive. Hopefully we can get an agreement on that soon. Sticking with the flexible working theme, I believe there’s something to discuss in relation to the three days a week on campus suggestion. 

Aisha 

There is Rachel and you know what? I am so tired of this. But so is HR. Because we are still getting instances of managers who are saying that you have to be on campus, the university rule is it should be on campus three days a week and every time we hear this, we go to HR and HR says no, that’s not a rule. It’s. It’s a suggestion that, you know, ideally you’ll be on campus more often than not, but it may not work for you. It may not work for the area that you’re working. Again, you know, there may not be enough space, there may not be any good business reasons. Whatever it is, it may not work for you. It is not a university rule. It absolutely is not a mandate. And if you’re getting this message from your line manager or your head of school, head of service, whatever, please let us know. 

Rachel 

Fantastic. That’s a good, clear message. And finally, for this section about what’s been happening, can you tell us a little bit about the pay and grading review? 

Aisha 

Well, actually the pay and grading review isn’t a what’s been happening, it’s a what’s going to happen between now and the next episode. So we have a meeting next week with university management. For the next stage of the pay and grading review. I think one of the things that concerns all three unions is the time scale of the paying grading review that we think it is planned to take too long and we would like to see it accelerated so. I’ll be able to update you more on this next time. 

Rachel 

OK. Thank you. 

Alan 

OK, so let’s look at what’s coming up. And so fairly soon, is it next week? we’ve got the UCU higher education special sector conference. Can you tell us a bit about that? 

Aisha 

Yes, so this is, I suppose it’s a kind of interim songress between and this is just for the higher education sector. And this is where the representatives from all the higher education institutions in UCU get together. We’ll have a number of motions. We haven’t got the agenda yet, so we don’t know what motions are going forward to this congress. And please have a look out for the agenda because I think there’s going to be a very short deadline for submitting amendments. Because as you said, Alan, the congress is the end of next week. But this is where really where the policy for the higher education sector will be discussed. It’ll go through to the Higher Education Committee and the National Executive Committee will make the final decisions. But this is where we’re going to make recommendations. Representatives from all the higher education institutions will make recommendations about the strategy and the policy for our sector, so it’s actually a really important meeting and please look out for the agenda, because if you have ideas for amendments, we’re going to need to submit them quickly. 

Alan 

And if members want to set what the branch’s policy is going to be in relation to that, uh, this meeting is happening the day after the AGM, isn’t it? So there’ll be an opportunity to give advice to delegates. 

Aisha 

That’s true. Yes. At the AGM, there’ll be an opportunity to think about how you would like delegates from this branch to vote. It’s not a mandate, it is advice, because when we hear the arguments presented, we may decide that the branch policy it’s not we, you know, we disagree with what was the advice that we were given. But generally speaking delegates with will go with the advice from the branch. So at the AGM there will be an opportunity to vote on the branch policy. On how you would like delegates to vote and you can advise delegates on how you think they should vote. 

Rachel 

OK. And since you’re mentioning the AGM, we have mentioned this in previous podcast, but perhaps we should just talk a little bit about that upcoming meeting, the annual general meeting.  

Aisha 

Yes, the AGM is next Thursday at lunchtime is 1245 till 2. Umm. You really we need nominations for committee and officers and those have to be in by, I think it’s noon. Is that correct, Alan? Noon on Wednesday the 15th of May? 

Alan 

It’s just at the end of the day, although if you send them by noon, that’s brilliant. It saves me having to do it all first thing on Thursday morning. 

Aisha 

Oh, the end of the day. So the end of the day is probably 5:00. So if you send it in at 7:00, it will probably be too late. But nominations have to be in by the end of the day on on Wednesday the 15th of May, you can send your nominations in now. You need 2 nominations and they can be from any members of the branch. They don’t have to be from your area, so you don’t need to worry if you don’t know who is a member in your school or your service. Just ask anybody you know that is a member to nominate you. We did talk, Emily talked quite a lot about the different roles available, the different elected officer roles. Back in was it episode seven? 

Alan 

Yep. 

Episode 7, so you can have a listen to that. And there’s also information on the LeedsUCU website leedsucu.org.uk. So I would urge you to consider standing. It’s always good to have new members of the committee. We’ll also be having departmental rep elections. I’ll probably talk about that in more in the next episode actually, but those are coming up. 

Alan 

Aisha, is there anything else coming up that you’d like to tell us about? 

Aisha 

I think the main thing is that we’ve got a number of meetings coming up for new starters. So if you’re new to the university, you should already have received an invitation. There’s meetings on the 10th of May, the 6th of June, and the 10th of July. But if there is somebody in your area who is new to the university and you think that they might not have, well, you obviously invite them to join UCU if they’re not already members, but you can also email ucu@leeds.ac.uk if they haven’t had an invitation. 

Rachel 

OK, fantastic. So I believe they’re on the Friday the 10th of May, Thursday the 6th of June and Wednesday the 10th of July at lunch times. And we really appreciate you bringing us the news. Aisha, we will see you very soon. 

Alan 

Thanks Aisha. 

Aisha 

Thank you, Rachel. Thank you, Alan. 

[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 22 May 2024