In today’s episode, recorded 29 January 2025: new casework officer role, vacancies for equality officer and ordinary committee member, future size and shape of the university – vice chancellor’s blog and UCU general meeting, Salma al-Shehab, annual meeting of academic -related professional staff.
With Jenny Rivas Perez and Rachel Walls.
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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
Hi everyone for today’s branch news, which we’re recording on the 29th of January 2025, we have Jenny Rivas Perez give us an update on the branch news. Hi, Jenny.
Jenny
Hi there.
Rachel
And I should mention we’re missing Alan today because of illness. But yeah, hopefully Jenny and I can have a good chat and give you lots of information. So we’ve just literally come out of a general meeting. For those who couldn’t make it, could you explain what happened? We had a motion about changing the branch rules to allow a casework officer for the branch?
Jenny
Yes. So this is really important because we are in the midst of a casework crisis and a lot of members who are seeking caseworkers are having to wait quite a while for a case worker and we want to get that sorted and I think one of the steps that we’re taking is actually to – is we’ve just passed this motion which will allow us to appoint a casework officer, so one of our officers who will have their main focus on casework and on solving the problems that we’re having with casework at the moment, whether that’s the pipeline in, in training new case workers, in supporting case workers that we have at the moment, or actually looking at some of the root of the problems about why we’re having so many members coming forward with particular problems, so the sort of systemic university problems, so that we can actually sort of gather evidence about that and take that to management and start trying to get some things changed, particularly around about, I mean things that we see quite often are things, cases, around about reasonable adjustments come up quite often. That sort of thing. And that’s the sort of thing that with one officer with their eye on that at all points, we can actually start to work together as officers to start working on the sort of aims that management could help us with, as well as the pipeline that we’ve got of new case workers coming on board as well, so that we can deal with the backlogs that we’ve got.
Rachel
OK. And the motion passed, I think unanimously.
Jenny
Oh the motion passed! Yes, yes, very pleased about that. So.
Rachel
Yeah, absolutely. What are the next steps?
Jenny
So the next steps are going to be that we’re going to advertise for a casework officer. So we’ll be sending out details about that to the branch very, very soon. And we want to be up and running as soon as possible with the new officer in place, with their focus on those problems. That said, that officer will also be taking up normal officer duties as well, so attending negotiations and consultations with management as well, and all the other things that officers do, but they’ll be holding that portfolio on that focus.
Rachel
Fantastic. And if you are interested or unaware of the officer roles that we have in the branch, you can look on leedsucu.org.uk and there’s a section that gives all the details there.
Jenny
There is and in that section it actually tells you what the duties of the different officers are, if you’re interested, because we have another officer role which is vacant at the moment and is out, advertised to members, and that is the Equality officer. Which was my former role, but I find it difficult to hold two rules at once. I’m currently Vice President, but I’m holding, you know, but I’m looking after the equality – I’m the equality lead for the. Branch – but the role deserves an officer looking after that brief. Because, I mean, just about everything that we do, equality is the sort of thread that goes through everything, whether that’s thinking about pay, about the equality pay gaps, or whether it is thinking about protected characteristics of various different members and how they’re treated in the workplace. The policies that the management put in place, looking at those through the equality lens. And so it’s a really key role that that we have and so we’re keen to get somebody in place from the membership. So if anybody’s out there who’s who is interested in equality and thinks that they can make a contribution there then please do contact me and I can tell you all about the role. It’s not like you’d be doing that role just on top of your normal job as well. There is sort of like release time for that. There’s a 0.2FTE release for that gives you time to actually do the role on top of your normal job.
Rachel
Brilliant. And that e-mail went out Monday, I believe. And I think there was a request for an ordinary committee member as well, which isn’t a role that has release time but could be a great way of getting involved and contributing to the branch.
Jenny
That’s correct. Yes. So we unfortunately lost a member of our committee, because they went to work somewhere else. So that role is vacant and our committee is really important because what it does is they do direct the policy decisions that the branch takes, I mean there are other ways of directing decisions, for instance, taking a motion to a general meeting and that’s how we’ve got a new a new a new officer role. But, you know, the committee’s really important, that we have people from lots of different areas across the university with lots of different kinds of experience so that they can actually have an input on the branch activity, and also act as – you know, were a small team of officers, who actually, you know, who go in and negotiate, but we don’t do that on our own. Standing behind us, beside us, is the committee and the advice that they gave us and their thoughts on different issues.
Rachel
Yeah. And that’s a fortnightly meeting and keeping your eye on emails to help make decisions in between meetings. That’s a role I’ve done for a while, so I would say it is manageable and it is an interesting way to keep up to date with what’s going on in the university.
Jenny
Oh, absolutely. In fact, I would go further, I’d say that actually, you know, if you’re – it’s a civil leadership role within the university, even if it’s not recognised by.by the university itself, it’s definitely a role which is very, very important to everybody in our constituency because it helps make, it helps shape terms and conditions that we work under.
Rachel
Yeah, really good point, absolutely.
Rachel
OK, so to go back to the general meeting. We had a bit of a discussion after we voted for the casework officer motion, and that was about what members might like to take to management. So what sort of things were coming up? What were people’s concerns and suggestions?
Jenny
Well, there were a lot of concerns around the VC’s blog. And I guess that’s sort of on a lot of people’s minds because the blog used words like looking at the size and shape of the university and talking about, you know, conversations needed to be had about. And that the VC was already engaged in conversations with Council and with UEG and Senior Leadership Forum. And so I guess that’s on people’s minds, but it’s also marrying that up with what’s going on on the ground and various different bits of the university. The drop in student numbers is worrying a lot of people. And also you know, we’re seeing more of redundancies being announced. I think yesterday was at Cardiff and also at Durham. So yeah, people are worried. And so there was much discussion about what we ought to be doing about that. There’s some members are thinking about how we could be more competitive in gaining students next year. And suggestions that they think should be made to the VC. And the other suggestion is that we have an extraordinary meeting very soon, that is with motions about how we can make stuff happen, and actually letting. university management know what’s on the minds of ordinary members, just through the motions that are passed at that meeting and the discussion that goes on. So, very soon, I guess at the next committee meeting, we will be scheduling an extraordinary general meeting in order to just focus on the university’s finances going forward and the uncertainty as far as, you know, what the university is going to look like next year when new students arrive – or don’t arrive – the numbers, when we’ve got some idea of the numbers. So that’s what we’re doing. So there are a couple of other issues that came up as well because it was a general topic. There were some specific things where I reminded people that, you know, if you want us to pick up specific issues please just e-mail the branch at -.
Rachel
ucu@leeds.ac.uk
Jenny
ucu@leeds.ac.uk. Yeah. And we can pick them up. And then there was some discussion also about possible use of agency staff at the university as well, and whether that’s increasing recently. So that’s something that we’re going to investigate and that officers are going to try and find out a bit more about as well. So it was a really useful discussion that we had and it’s something that was, it’s just a bit new that we were just trying. But I think everybody made really good contributions to it.
Rachel
Yeah.
Jenny
Lots of ideas.
Rachel
That’s good. Yeah. Because committee and officers can hear what the members say and start to work on them. It is really important that people submit motions too, and because then we have the kind of leverage of a motion that’s been voted on, and we can take it forward as official branch policy.
Jenny
Absolutely. And I think the thing about a motion is that people come forward with one idea, but then there’s a process for motions where, you know, people can look at them, they can amend them, and that is a method for actually coming up with some really good strong policy for the branch that we can use.
Rachel
Yeah. Yeah. So just to remind you, if anybody is interested in submitting a motion, but perhaps feels they need help with it, you can e-mail the branch and ask and somebody can give you some guidance. So, do you get in touch if there’s something that you do want to bring to the next meeting.
Jenny
Absolutely.
Rachel
So we have covered most of what occurred in the meeting, I think. Although you gave us an update on Salma al-Shehab. Maybe that’s worth repeating here as well.
Jenny
Yes, unfortunately, Salma al-Shehab, as far as we know, has not been released yet. So Salma al-Shehab was a PhD student at the University of Leeds, and she’s also a Saudi national. And almost four years ago she returned home for a holiday and she was picked up by the authorities, put on trial for some tweets that she had made whilst out of Saudi Arabia, i.e. here at Leeds, in support of women’s rights in Saudi Arabia. And she was sentenced to 27 years in jail, in Saudi Arabia. And she’s been serving that sentence ever since. The sentence went to appeal recently and the sentence was reduced to four years. And since she’s been in jail for that that long, she should be released. However, so far – that news came out just about a week ago, but we’re still waiting to hear that she has been released and I am told by activists that it’s not unusual for it to take a long time for the admin round about the release of someone to come about. But we are asked to, where we can, to keep up the pressure to make sure that she is released, and also that she can be allowed to travel again, to leave Saudi Arabia, because she’s still got a PhD to finish and the last time I remember checking the university did offer for her to be able to take up her studies again when she was released, and I think that offer is still there on the table.
Rachel
Let’s hope we hear some news soon, then.
Jenny
Yeah.
Rachel
OK. Is there any more news from the meetings that officers attend, the negotiations and consultations? I know you’re always busy with those engagements.
Jenny
Oh my, we’re always busy with those engagements. I guess some of the things that are – there’s a lot of local issues going on which probably it’s not, it’s not appropriate to talk about on this podcast. However, things that have been happening … we have in meetings already been voicing their concerns about the language that was used in the VC’s blog. We have got a meeting coming up with the VC actually. So myself and Vicky Blake, our honorary secretary, will be representing the union in a meeting with the VC and the other trade union representatives as well, in the next couple of weeks. So that’s coming up. So I think we may be trying to talk a little bit about the university finances there. So, yeah, I think that’s one of the things that’s mainly focusing our minds, we have been thinking about that for quite some time and that’s one of the issues that comes up. We have twice weekly meetings with HR. It’s an informal meeting. And then we also have meetings which are formal meetings which are a joint committee with the university, so that’s our negotiating meeting, and we have one of those in a couple of weeks as well. And we have various, you know, it’s where we take sort of the issues that we want to negotiate about. So we’re just at the moment analysing what our agenda items are that we want to put forward. So yeah, it’s always busy. Let’s just say that. And that’s the things that are coming up in next few weeks.
Rachel
OK. Is there anything else coming up nationally perhaps?
Jenny
Oh, right. So we’re talking about the ballot, are we? OK, so first of all on the ballot, we’ve not heard anything, but what I can say locally is, is that behind the scenes. Alan and Emily Haikney have been working really, really hard to make sure that we’re in a position to actually, you know that all the I’s are dotted and the T’s are crossed, for all the data that we have, so that we can go into a ballot and quite quickly once it is announced. But we haven’t heard anything about an announcement. Nationally, there’s a couple of meetings that members might want to know about. So if you are a member of academic, related and professional staff, you might want to know about the annual meeting for ARPS staff and the branch is currently looking for two members to go and represent them, and that will be on the 6th of March. So if you’re interested in doing that, please e-mail the branch, let us know and we can then discuss it – well, we can then put it to the committee that you’re one of the delegates if that’s what you want to do. The travel and the expenses of getting there will be covered and I think it’s in London this year.
Rachel
Yes, yes, I’m pretty sure Emily said. It was in London. There is an option to attend online as well.
Jenny
Yeah. There is. Yeah. And I’ve done that in the past and they are really, really good meetings. It’s really good discussions that go on and information swapping and finding out how things are done in different places and actually, and just talking to each other about what needs to change as well in the national level for ARPS staff.
Rachel
Yeah. So if you are academic related or professional services and you’re interested in attending that meeting, e-mail ucu@leeds.ac.uk. I think we might have come to the end of our topics for discussion, but thank you very much for sharing all the branch news. Is there anything else you want to add?
Jenny
I think I think that’s it really. I think we’ve covered a lot in this podcast.
Rachel
OK. Well, thank you very much Jenny for letting us know the news and we look forward to seeing you soon.
Jenny
OK. Thanks. Bye.
[Brief music]
Outro
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, 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.