Minutes of general meeting 19 October 2018
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Friday 19 October 2018, 12pm – 1pm
Michael Sadler building LG15
- Minutes of EGM 12 June 2018
Item not taken (out of time)
2. Pay and equality dispute
Industrial action ballot results – pay and equality – will be out on Monday. We may need to have another emergency general meeting before the next ordinary general meeting 10 December.
3. USS pension dispute update, including motions 1and 2
University of Leeds highlighted as extreme institution in how they responded to USS consultations as far back in 2014.
Motion 1 amended to remove “to spine point 49 of the nationally agreed framework salary scale (£56,950 in 2017/18) and to increase each year in line with pay for that spine point” and replace with “in line with inflation.” Motion to submit to UCU higher education special conference on USS now reads:
Conference notes that:
- the Joint Expert Panel report on the USS valuation largely vindicates UCU’s arguments that there is no substantial deficit
- Universities UK is currently consulting employers about their response to the report
- there will soon be another round of Joint Negotiating Committee negotiations about potential changes to pension arrangements
- employers were concerned by the industrial strength we showed during our spring 2018 strikes
Conference instructs UCU’s pension negotiators to press for:
- the employers to cover any additional contributions that USS may seek as a result of the JEP report
- the restoration of the 1% match
- the Defined Contributions threshold (£55,550 in 2017/18) to be increased to spine point 49 of the nationally agreed framework salary scale (£56,950 in 2017/18) and to increase each year in line with pay for that spine point
Motion carried as amended.
Motion 2 carried
- Motion 3 (rule change): Motion to amend local rule 7.3 (committee membership and vacancies)
Motion 3 carried
- Motion 4 (rule change): New department rep roles
Motion 4 carried
- Approval for spending to purchase of Leeds UCU flags at £411.26 for 504 University of Leeds UCU flags (45 x 30 cm)
Approved
- Committee vacancies for anticasualisation officer and postgraduate rep (ordinary committee member)
Noted that committee would be writing out to seek nominations to fill these vacancies.
Motion 1
Conference notes that:
- the Joint Expert Panel report on the USS valuation largely vindicates UCU’s arguments that there is no substantial deficit
- Universities UK is currently consulting employers about their response to the report
- there will soon be another round of Joint Negotiating Committee negotiations about potential changes to pension arrangements
- employers were concerned by the industrial strength we showed during our spring 2018 strikes
Conference instructs UCU’s pension negotiators to press for:
- the employers to cover any additional contributions that USS may seek as a result of the JEP report
- the restoration of the 1% match
- the Defined Contributions threshold (£55,550 in 2017/18) to be increased to spine point 49 of the nationally agreed framework salary scale (£56,950 in 2017/18) and to increase each year in line with pay for that spine point
Proposed by the committee
Motion 2 -Motion to Leeds University UCU GM to submit to the national HE Sector Conference on USS
- Conference notes that:
- the report delivered by the Joint Expert Panel (JEP) has recommended adjustments to the USS scheme valuation methodology.
- UUK has used the “deficit argument” since 2011 to introduce massive cuts to our pensions.
- The JEP report undermines the deficit claims.
- Conference believes:
- None of those cuts were justified from a financial perspective; they were purely dogmatic.
- Conference resolves to
campaign for:
- The re-establishment of one defined benefit scheme for all USS members,
- financial compensation for those USS members who have lost a portion of their defined benefit pension due to the above unjustified decisions.
Proposed by Mouloud Kessar and Lesley McGorrigan
Motion 3: Motion to amend local rule 7.3
This amendment will allow the committee to recruit new members to itself during the academic year, in situations when a vacancy becomes available, but 4 committee member have already been co-opted. It is proposed that the following clause is added to rule 7.3:
“1. d) ordinary members recruited as necessary from the general membership by committee when vacancies occur, who will then serve to the end of the term.”
Proposed by the committee
Motion 4: Rule change motion: new department rep roles
The meeting notes:
- §29 of our proposed rules (‘Departmental Reps’) says that ‘Each School/Unit/Service is requested to elect a departmental representative.’
- Leeds UCU committee has since found that it would be valuable for departments also to have an anticasualisation representative, a postgraduate representative and a workload representative.
The meeting moves:
- To amend ‘Each School/Unit/Service is requested to elect a departmental representative’ to ‘Each School/Unit/Service is requested to elect a departmental representative, and other representatives as needed by the Committee for the satisfactory representation of the membership, such as an anticasualisation representative, a postgraduate representative and a workload representative.
Proposed by the committee
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