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Department rep by-elections October 2024

Department representatives by-election October 2024 The branch committee has called a by-election for where there are department rep roles available, because the election was held later into the summer…

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Jonathan Dean

I’m writing to inform you, with great sadness, that Jonathan Dean has passed away very suddenly and unexpectedly at home on May 24th. Jonathan, Associate Professor of Politics, was…

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‘Except Palestine’ event

Justice Without Borders: Connecting Local Activism and International Movements from Palestine to the World PLEASE JOIN US ON THURSDAY 20 JUNE 2024 IN BAINES WING SR (2.10) 1600-1800 Hosted…

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This page was last updated on 7 May 2024

Strikes starting Monday: what you need to know

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

Picketing

  • Please sign up for picket duty here. You can just turn up on the day, but it’s helpful to get an indication of how many people we can expect. There’s a space on the form to let us know if there any adjustments we could make, or support we could provide, that would help enable you to picket.
  • Please come to the pink gazebo, which will be outside the main entrance from 7:30 am every day, to sign in and get placards and leaflets.
  • We’ll suggest where to go with the aim of covering all the entrances, but if you have a preference (e.g. if you’d like to picket near where you work) you can tell us when you sign in.
  • If you haven’t picketed before, we’ll make sure you’re with someone who’s experienced (not that it’s hard, honestly, you’ll be handing out leaflets and stickers and chatting to people).
  • Bring layers with waterproofs/umbrella – the weather forecast at the moment is rainy.
  • We’d love you to bring your own placard or banner.
  • Toilets – you can use the toilets (which include disabled toilets) in the Emmanuel Centre, a neutral location.
  • You don’t have to picket every day, do take some time for yourself.
  • Do take photos and talk about the strike on social media – it helps to create a buzz and keep others informed.  Please tag @leedsucu and use hashtag #ucuRISING.
  • We’d recommend everyone pickets on Monday 25th September as a show of strength
  • On Friday 29th September, the University of Leeds Unison and Unite branches will also be on strike and we look forward to standing together
  • On Friday 29th September we will have a Post your ballot day and encourage member to bring their ballot to campus, if not posted already, to post in the post box at Woodhouse Lane with photos taken for maximum impact and solidarity.

Rallies daily at 11:30

Pickets and supporters will be meeting up on the Parkinson steps at 11:30 each day for a short rally, including speeches, updates, visiting speakers.

Migrant members

We know that it can be hard for migrant members, who face the ‘hostile environment’ and many problems over visas and more, to join industrial action. It helps that the Home Office has updated its guidelines to specify that striking doesn’t count as unauthorised absence for visa (Tier 2) purposes, via an exception to the rule on absences from employment without pay.  The national UCU FAQs for migrant workers are the best place for up to date information about visas and striking, indefinite leave to remain etc. Your union will support migrant members in every way we can.

Notifying about striking, and strike deductions

You definitely do not need to notify anyone in advance that you are striking.  Please don’t, because it enables management to reduce the effectiveness of our strikes. You just need to notify HR on your first day back each time you come back into work after strike days. Remember you can claim from the national fighting fund and our local hardship fund if required.

Out of office message

Here’s a suggested email auto reply for use during the strikes – feel free to adapt as you see fit.

Thank you for your email – this is an auto-reply.  I am currently taking part in the University and College Union’s (UCU) strike action for fair pay and action on workloads, casualisation and pay gaps. More information here. Please request that our Vice Chancellor (vice-chancellor@leeds.ac.uk) work meaningfully with UCU on local issues and use her influence to urge the employer bodies to negotiate meaningfully with UCU nationally.

‘Striking Insights: Welcome to Solidarity’ Teach Outs

We are developing a programme for this and as.  If you’ve been considering offering a session, please add it asap to this spreadsheet.

Joining UCU

It is never to late to join and we are always glad to have new members even in the middle of industrial action! Individuals can join UCU at any point up to and including on the picket line on the day of strike action and lawfully participate in the strike.

We are currently balloting to maintain our ability to action in our pay and conditions campaign. Friday 27 October 2023 (12:00 noon) is the deadline for new members to join UCU and be automatically included in the ballot – but why delay, join today!

See you on the picket lines! 

LeedsUCU podcast: update on anti-casualisation work

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

LeedsUCU podcast Year 2 episode 2: Update on anti-casualisation work

Today’s episode, recorded 6 November 2024, is an update on the UCU branch’s anti-causalisation work.

With Sandy James, Rachel Walls and Alan Smith.

If you prefer your union branch news direct to your ears, search for LeedsUCU wherever you get your podcasts, and subscribe so you get notified about new episodes. 

See all the episodes and transcripts at https://www.leedsucu.org.uk/about-us/podcast/

To join UCU go to ⁠https://www.ucu.org.uk/join

Direct links to the LeedsUCU podcast 

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/2Ht1Iks9WPR6qbmGXXOXfS

Amazon Podcasts https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/1f16de89-30ec-444a-83ac-54bcbe0bcac6/leedsucu-podcast

Pocket Casts https://pca.st/pacoaeqd

Also available on Apple Podcasts

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 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 and we’re joined by Sandy James today, branch anti-casualisation officer, and he’s going to give us some insights into the work the branch has been doing in this. area recently. Would you be able to give us a bit of an overview of what LeedsUCU has done around anti-casualisation over the last few years?

Sandy

Yeah. Thanks for having me and really good to be able to talk to members like this. So the last few years in anti-casualisation at Leeds UCU have been kind of dominated by this thing called Fairer Futures For All. Which is where the university said that within certain conditions, lots of people who were on fixed term contracts would be made ongoing. And there were some really sort of low hanging fruit there and people who were core funded by the university and things like support roles – admissions would be an example – where they should probably never have been fixed term and it was sort of a no brainer and it just made everyone’s lives easier. At the other end of the spectrum, for people on, for example, research contracts who are very often fixed term on the basis of external funding there has still been an improvement there in in terms of the support available to people in terms of the user experience, if you like, of the kind of end of a research project, there has been an improvement and I would say that that continues as everyone throughout the system understands the new process properly. I should say we do still have people on fixed term contracts and that is still an issue and there are particular areas, for example, sessional teaching, people supervising dissertation projects, and so there is ongoing work there as well. We do also still have on our radar work to support postgraduate researchers who teach, and looking at the kinds of employment contracts that are used for those people, and also looking at other forms of hourly paid work within the university.

Alan

So can I just say that Fairer Future For All stuff, that didn’t come out of nowhere, did it, that came from UCU was in dispute with the university over among other things, anti-casualisation, and the university suddenly announced “Fairer Future For All!”.

Sandy

Yeah. So the context around that was this was in the summer of 2022. So all of this has been a little while in the works and we were in dispute nationally including over the four fights – casualization, workload, equalities and pay – and we actually had a marking and assessment boycott in the University of Leeds, which is considered to be one of our strongest forms of industrial action, and, to end that locally, management made an agreement to do a piece of work on this and I would say Fairer Futures For All is certainly the thing that has delivered a part of that promise. Now there are other things within that agreement that, as I’ve said, are still ongoing, hourly paid, PGR, for example, that also delivered the pay and grading review, which I imagine we’ve talked about elsewhere in the podcast.

Rachel

Yeah, we have, yeah. And what has been your role in other officers’ roles since, like during, the Fairer Futures For All roll-out, if we can call it that?

Sandy

Yeah. So it’s been it’s been really important to have people who have experience. I’m on the casualization spectrum but at the least casualized end of it these days, but I have been through the whole development and it’s very important to have people feeding into me. So I do a lot of casework supporting other people going through risk of redundancy, for example, but being, I would say, being the tester, so the person who says OK, well, if you tell managers they can do that, then they’re going to go and do this, and actually if you don’t clarify that bit, that leaves it open for people to do this, and really just giving that lived experience to the HR officers who don’t operate within that, not just on behalf of myself, but on behalf of all members. So collating that experience from members and then presenting it to management, as anyone does for their bargaining unit.

Alan

So the new policies that are in place now are they agreed policies that have come out of the negotiations or not? Where are we with that?

Sandy

So the policies are in the process of being agreed. So partly, that is because we are still kind of ironing out some of these things that aren’t clear and where we found differing practise across the university, differing interpretations of the way that these policies are written. And also the nature of some of these policies is such that we do ask region for support, so UCU Yorkshire region are, you know, looking at these policies as they develop and supporting us with that negotiation process.

Alan

So the policies have improved, but we’re not quite at that agreement point?

Sandy

I would say so. Yeah. And that’s it’s sort of separate to the fact that conditions have improved for some people, but that there are still issues as well. So there’s kind of two sides to it.

Alan

So if a member’s coming towards the end of their fixed term contract – well, I wouldn’t say near the end – if you’ve got, I don’t know, a year to go, six months to go, what’s the best point at which to get in touch? What should members do if they’re in that situation?

Sandy

In my experience, most people start to think about where their next job is coming from about a year before the end of their current activity. At about 6 months they will receive an e-mail from HR which says: we think you’re at risk of redundancy, we’ve asked a university panel to approve that and we’d like you to come into a meeting with your line manager and HR. And at that point, understandably, people get quite scared because that’s quite a serious communication to receive and so I would advise people, certainly before the six month process to reach out to the branch ucu@leeds.co.uk.

Alan

ucu@leeds.ac.uk.

Sandy

And request a caseworker. And we have very experienced caseworkers in this area who understand the policy and the procedure through and through and will support you through that process. It’s a very common thing. Lots of people are doing it and we’re here to help.

Alan

So when they’ve contacted the case worker, and the case worker is going to try and support them through what this new process is, how’s this new process work and how’s it different from what there was before, the – what’s the policy? – employment security for staff on fixed term contracts?

Sandy

The procedure to support employment security, it’s a very long name. That no longer exists, but much of what happens is the same. So there’s a meeting six months before the end of contract where the individual is told that they are at risk of redundancy and they’re introduced to the package of support that the university offers to try and retain that person and that mostly relies on the redeployment process, so the notion that internal candidates are given a bit of an advantage in application for posts before they’re advertised externally. Then if we get to three months before end of activity and there’s still no new position, then that person is put to the panel again. That’s called the stage 2 redundancy panel, and that’s the point at which the panel confirms that that person can be made redundant and a redundancy issued notice is issued and now for most people who are grade 7 or below, their notice period will be 3 months. So that’s why the panel happens at that time because people have to be given formal notice. That doesn’t mean that the story’s over. Redeployment, external application for funding, etc. can all continue right up until the last day of employment, and a caseworker would be available to support people through that. I just want to say one quick clarification as well. I’m talking about end of activity, here. One of the sort of fundamental movements that we have succeeded in at the university is to stop talking about the end of external fixed funding as the end of employment, because whilst the activity you’re funded on might be ending, that does not mean that we don’t need, for example, post-doctoral research fellows at the university anymore. It’s not redundancy in the usual sense of a role being made redundant. It is the end of an activity which is funded.

Rachel

Hmm, OK. And should the university be leaving it to when the individual’s at risk of redundancy, or should they be planning ahead to avoid this?

Sandy

In an ideal case, yes, we would have some sort of notion of how to avoid this ahead of time and there is a process which has been introduced for that which is called workforce planning and it’s important to distinguish this from the process by which the schools within the university manage their teaching workload because it’s not the same as that, workforce planning simply says: we have a role coming up and we have some people who whose current activity is ending, and here are their skills profiles, and oh look, one of them matches this role, we can give them the role. It retains people, it supports career progression and it avoids a lot of work which would be required for recruitment. I would say it’s not in very widespread use. Some areas of the university are doing it quite well. Some areas I’m not convinced they’ve heard of it.

Alan

But this is new for them, isn’t it? I think this is new from this process. And so is the idea that managers are supposed to be actively focusing on creating that stability in the workforce.

Sandy

Heads of school, heads of service are being asked to be proactive. Yeah. So it’s a little bit above line manager for a lot of people, but then actually, those people – heads of school – certainly do line manage a lot of people. So it’s, yeah, there is a proactive process and I would say it is growing, more people are taking it up and it is being used and part of that is about is about having case studies where we say this person was retained and it was great, they were the right person for that role.

Rachel

Yeah. That makes sense to keep the talent and the skills and the developed people that we have. So it’s good that there is more movement towards that. Is this likely to – the whole fixed term contracts and casualisation – how does this affect people’s careers progression?

Sandy

Yeah, it has a really profound effect. The notion of secure employment supporting you to develop in your career. Whereas, for example, if you’re running from six month contract to six month contract and you’re constantly applying for extensions, you never have the time to develop your skill set and reach that next level. And it also leads to the sense of precarity of individuals not feeling safe in their employment and that adds, alongside workload issues that we all have, to a poor mental health. So security is really important to support people’s well-being, but also their career progression. And there’s a few things that I think it’s really important for members to be aware of. And without going too much into the arcane history of how this came about, the local implementation framework for the national pay spine. So that’s the agreement where UCU and the University of Leeds sat down and worked out, OK, we are nationally required to adhere to this pay spine, how are we going to do that locally? – in that document it says no one, regardless of role, will get stuck at the top of grade 7. That is an agreement between the university and the union, and it is poorly adhered to. So one thing I as anti-casualisation officer, I would really encourage members to reach out again to the union, ucu@leeds.ac.uk and ask for support with career progression as well as with retention and risk of redundancy because we can support you with case studies of people who’ve successfully applied for promotion, looking at if you’re not ready for promotion, if you haven’t met the criteria, why is that? What support should you have had and how can we push for that? And so that’s one thing I wanted to say. Hopefully all of this will get better without tonnes and tonnes of work from us because there is a big project underway across the university about career pathways and so we’re hearing the Explore phase of that, where they look at what practises and what the issues are, is coming to an end. We should be brought an update about that soon and we can start to contribute again into the development phase of: how might we change that? what will be the plan for the future? So that’s a big ongoing project that we’re very aware of. It’s affecting lots of other things at the university and that I think it’s really important for members to know that that work is being done.

Rachel

Good to know. So, moving on to our next section of the podcast. We just like to give members a bit of a heads-up on upcoming events and I think there’s just one today. Do you want to tell us a little bit about the next meeting in our calendar?

Sandy

Yeah. So we have a meeting which is open to all of our membership, on the meeting itself will be on the 3rd of December, Tuesday the 3rd. And as usual, the meeting will run from 12:45 till 2:00 PM. And this is an opportunity for our branch to come together to decide branch policy and to task the branch, the committee and the officers with behaving in a particular way, with working on a particular issue, whatever it is that the membership wants. That’s our democratic decision-making body and there’s a deadline to submit motions to that which is at 12:00 PM on Tuesday the 26th of November. So get your motions written, get them in by then.

Rachel

Yeah. Still a couple of weeks to have a think in case there’s anything you want to submit.

Alan

Yeah. And if you’ve got an idea for something that the union should be doing, but you’ve no idea how to write a motion, I think, you know, talk to your department rep or if you haven’t got a department rep e-mail, ucu@leeds.ac.uk and say how do I turn this idea into a motion of that kind of standard format? And somebody will be able to help with that.

Rachel

Absolutely. Well, thanks, Alan. And Sandy, thank you for coming and telling us about the work around anti-casualisation. We will speak to you soon!

[Everyone saying thanks and bye].

 [Brief music]

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.

LeedsUCU podcast: branch news 25 October 2024

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

LeedsUCU podcast Year 2 episode 1: branch news 25 October 2024

In today’s episode (recorded 23 October): new committee and officers, pay and grading review for grade 10, HR policies review, annual leave policy, national pay and conditions negotiations, maternity pay policy and paternity or partner leave policy, next general meeting, Leeds trade union council sing-along

With Aisha Walker, Jenny Rivas Perez, Rachel Walls and Alan Smith.

If you prefer your union branch news direct to your ears, search for LeedsUCU wherever you get your podcasts, and subscribe so you get notified about new episodes. 

See all the episodes and transcripts at https://www.leedsucu.org.uk/about-us/podcast/

To join UCU go to ⁠https://www.ucu.org.uk/join

Direct links to the LeedsUCU podcast 

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/2Ht1Iks9WPR6qbmGXXOXfS

Amazon Podcasts https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/1f16de89-30ec-444a-83ac-54bcbe0bcac6/leedsucu-podcast

Pocket Casts https://pca.st/pacoaeqd

Also available on Apple Podcasts

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]

Hi everyone, welcome to the Leeds UCU podcast. Today we are joined by Aisha worker, interim branch president and Jenny Rivas Perez, branch vice president to give us the latest news. It’s been a while since we had a podcast. Last one went out on the 19th of July towards the end of the last academic year, so we’ve got quite a lot of catching up to do today.

Alan

So first thing, because we’re in the new academic year, that means Members have elected a new committee. So where are we with that? Aisha ohh.

Aisha

Oh well, obviously, welcome back, everybody for the new academic year. It’s really nice to see a few new faces on committee and also in our officer team. So particular welcome to Anja Komatar and Abdul-Bashid Shaikh who are job sharing the role of campaigns officer. As Rachel said, I’m actually interim president. I’m really the immediate past president, but I’m acting into the role of president for the time being, covering the role. But I’m really delighted that Jenny Rivas Perez has stepped up into the role of Vice President. That’s fantastic, Jenny, thank you very much.

Alan

So at the end of last year, we had the pay and regrading negotiations which resulted in a pay uplift, unrelated to the national pay negotiations, but resulted in a pay uplift for staff up to Grade 9, which is excellent and at the time one of the things that UCU was asking is: “What about grade 10?” So where are we with that?

Aisha

Thank you, Alan. Yes. So members at grade 2 to 9 should have seen the impact of the pay and grading review in their pay slips over the last couple of months, and, as you said, Alan, this is not part of the national negotiations. So the national negotiations look at the pay spine and how much money is at each point on the spine. But every university has autonomy when it comes to deciding how they set their pay grades on the national spine, So what Leeds has done is it pushed every grade in the 2 to 9 bands up one spine point. But they haven’t yet done grade 10, and this is one of the things that we really need to know and that we’re going to be discussing with management at our next joint committee, is what’s happening with grade 10. We were told that this is going to happen and that it will also be related to the career pathways work that the university is embarking on, but we would really like to see – we really need actually more information about the process and the time scale. When we put the pay and grading review to the vote, members voted overwhelmingly to accept the offer, and that includes people at grade 10. So you know, we think, well, you supported your colleagues in grades 2 to 9 to get their pay boost, and now it’s your turn. And we want to make sure that you get it.

Alan

So I understand that the university is reviewing all of its HR policies and it’s trying to set in place a new process for doing that. What’s going on with that?

Aisha

Yes. So, as you said, the university is undertaking a review of all of its policies and this is really important. It’s really important for everybody and it’s also really important for trade unions because the policies form part of the employment terms and conditions and so they have to be negotiated and agreed with the trade unions, not just us, all the campus trade unions. The stage we’re at at the moment is trying to agree the terms of reference for the review. As I said, it’s really important, these are part of the terms and conditions, and if we don’t achieve successful outcomes in negotiations, there’s a chance that that one or more of the unions may go into dispute with the university. I don’t know if members are aware, but the university runs two types of process: consultation and negotiation. And consultation is really where they’re just asking the trade unions opinion about something and they don’t have to take that into account. So a very simple thing that where we would expect to see consultation is on things like the Staff Engagement Survey. They’ll tell us about how they’re going to do it, they’ll ask, they’ll tell us about the questions, they’ll ask what we think. And they may or may not take that into account. But negotiation is a formal process that is done through our joint committees and which has to come to an agreement that both parties can live with. It may not be an ideal outcome, but both parties know that we can live with it. And that’s the case with employment terms and conditions. They don’t just ask our opinion and then go with whatever they think these have to be negotiated. And if negotiations don’t come to agreement, as I said, we could end up with dispute.

Alan

So, and sort of related to that, the annual leave policy, we have an annual leave policy for staff who are academic or academic related or professional or managerial. And a different annual leave policy for the university support staff, which is negotiated with unison and unite. But I understand that in the midst of discussions about a change in that annual leave policy, a version has gone out into the wild in some areas.

Aisha

Yes. So we have had, historicall,y we’ve had two different policies for support staff and for academic and academic related professional staff, and these are being combined as part of the policy review. These are being combined into one policy. This does form part of our terms and conditions. So it does need to be negotiated with the trade unions and we haven’t yet reached agreement. But as you said, it has actually gone out into the wild, it has been made public in some areas, but we have written to the university to point out the areas of disagreement. So, yeah, that is, that’s an ongoing negotiation over the annual leave policy.

Alan

So at the moment, do members need to do anything? If they’re asked, you know, to follow policy and they’re not sure whether or not that’s the same as is in their terms and conditions, do they need to do anything like contact UCU, or do they need to object to an apparent imposition? Or are we still at a kind of waiting to see stage?

Aisha

So, to be honest, I imagine that for most people the process of booking annual leave will be as it always has been. But if you do have any problems with your management then please get in touch with UCU. So one example might be, it has never been university policy that staff involved in teaching can’t take leave during teaching time, during teaching semesters, if your manager says that they will not allow leave during the teaching periods and points to the new policy, which doesn’t actually say that, but, you know, they could point to something else in the new policy and say, well, it says here, then you need to contact ucu@leeds.ac.uk.

Rachel

OK. It’s great to hear what UCU officers have been busy with locally, but we wondered if there were any updates on the national front, specifically in relation to pay and conditions?

Aisha

Well, we know that negotiations are ongoing and we’ve had some updates from the General Secretary, we haven’t actually as officers, we haven’t heard anything that’s substantially different from the things that have gone out to all members. So we know that agreement hasn’t been reached and we believe that we may be expecting a consultative ballot. So really it’s a kind of watch this space, something may happen and we will see. Of course, what the decisions that a union makes at this point, may be affected by the legislation that’s currently going through Parliament, because an act has it’s gone through the first stage and was passed, that would repeal a lot of the 2016 Act and that includes things like the minimum thresholds, voting thresholds for industrial action, so that may influence some of the things that unions decide to do. We’ll have to just wait and see.

Rachel

Absolutely. Yeah. That’s a good point. To return to local discussions, thhe university trade unions and the university management meet regularly on a committee. So is there anything else to report from that in recent months?

Aisha

Yes. So we have a, we call it JCUU, joint committee of the university and the union. Each union has its own joint committee with the university. And we’re meeting – we have our first meeting of the year. We meet four times a year. Our first meeting is next week. We’ve got quite a busy agenda. It includes things like the terms of reference for the policy review, annual leave, as we’ve already mentioned, workload modelling. What else have we got on it? We’ve got car parking because we know that a number of people have been concerned about the recent the rises that have been announced, the cost, the price rises for car parking. This is something that was presented to the unions. We weren’t even really consulted about it, we were just told it’s going to happen. And we know that a number of people are unhappy about it. And something else that we’ve got on the agenda for next week is parental leave. I’m going to let Jenny talk about that.

Rachel

That would be great. We had a general meeting recently where some motions were passed, didn’t we? So it was great to have members votes on those, votes in favour. If you’d like to tell us a bit more about them that would be great, Jenny.

Jenny

Yeah. So at the last general meeting, we passed 2 motions asking the university to change its approach to supporting new parents. We know that family friendly policies that offer practical support to new parents will help to retain female staff and will help to reduce the gender pay gap at the same time, and we also know that, sadly, with the arrival of children, that the gender pay gap, that’s when it really starts to affect women at work and actually it turns into a lifelong wealth gap as well. So these motions are there to help address that. Because at the moment, enhanced maternity pay is only available at the university if you’ve worked for worked there for a year, and this can cause real hardship to people who end up taking maternity leave in their first year of employment at the university. It can mean that they’re forced to make some really hard choices, and perhaps have to return to work sooner than would be ideal for them. So we want to see this changed so that there are enhanced maternity benefits from day one. And really in the larger scheme of things, it’s not really a change that should cost our employer too much. It shouldn’t make a difference whether people choose to take their maternity leave in year one, year 2, year 3 of employment if they’re employed over many, many years by the university. But to individuals, it really could make all the difference. It’ll make the difference to how they plan their families and their lives to their family finances, and also how they feel about the universities as an employer. And their inclination to continue working at the university, you know, when they return from maternity leave. So that’s about the changes that we want to see to the maternity leave policy. The other policy is the paternity or partner leave policy and we want to see more generous paid leave on that. Currently it’s two weeks. But we’d like to see a longer amount of time offered and for it to be paid so that people are encouraged to take it up. Because we know that new mothers need their partner’s help when a new baby arrives, and we also know that there’s a really strong link between equal, more equal parenting and ensuring that new mothers return to their chosen career plan. These are career paths that they’ve trained for and that they’ve invested a lot in and we’re talking about highly skilled people that work at the university that we don’t want to lose. And so finally, we also know that with equal parenting there is a link with lowering gender pay gaps and we want to close the gender pay gaps in this country, not just at the university, but you know, in society in general. So it’s for these reasons that many other universities, I think there’s about 17 or 18 and counting, have already introduced these measures. The maternity leave from day one and longer partner leave. So, and currently at Leeds, our mean gender pay gap is sitting at 18.2% and anything the university can do to reduce this should be done. There has been progress since 2017 when reporting of the gender pay gap began, but the figure is still shamefully high. I mean, the national mean gender pay gap, for comparison is 8.7%. So we need action on this. And now is a good time, as we’ve been talking about the review of policies, that HR’s looking at policies, now is a really good time to sort of bring these motions, for these motions to have been brought forward by the general meeting, because hopefully we can we can get HR to agree with us about how these particular policies should be improved.

Rachel

Absolutely. Fingers crossed. Yeah, I think it’s a good as good an idea as our members did. And talking of general meetings, there is another opportunity – there’s regular opportunities throughout the year – so could you tell us about the next one, the next opportunity to come along, potentially submit a motion or at least vote upon the motions that others have submitted?

Jenny

Yeah. So the next one’s 3rd of December. As usual, we start at quarter to one in the afternoon. And so it’s an hour and 15 minutes. And you need to submit motions by midday on the 26th of November.

Rachel

Thank you. And that is an opportunity for people to put forward their own ideas about how we should influence or try and influence the university.

Jenny

Absolutely.

Rachel

So in addition to general meetings, there are also often social opportunities with UCU, so we try to flag some of those. Alan, could you tell us a bit about an upcoming social opportunity?

Alan

So thanks, Rachel. Strictly speaking, not a UCU social, but UCU is a member of the Leeds Trades Union Council. And the Leeds TUC has a sing along every year. Well, I say every year this is the second of them. But its intention is to do it every year and it’s a social event for trade union members who live or work in Leeds to go and sing along to songs about trade union type stuff. And if you don’t know any of those songs, which many of us won’t, you get a songbook when you turn up and you can join in in the choruses, and that’s what it’s for. And it’s not a serious musical event, it’s a social join-y-in-y in sort of event. So if you’re a UCU member, check your e-mail. We’ve sent you the details through about, how to get tickets and go along to that. So if you do go, I’ll see you there.

Rachel

Thanks so much, Alan, and thanks for bringing us the branch news, Aisha and Jenny it’s been good to see you all and we’ll see you soon.

[Thanks and byes]

[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.

Leeds Trades Council (Leeds TUC) sing-along 16th November

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

The 2024 Leeds trades council (Leeds TUC) sing-along is being held 7pm – 10pm, Saturday 16 November at The Holbeck.

Please do come and join in if you can. It’s about socialising and passing on shared struggle and shared history through songs.

It’s a social event not a serious singing event. The songs will be sung by someone who knows it (some regular musicians, some just trade union members who fancy leading a song) and you will all get a song book so you can join in with the choruses.

There will be songs about trade unions, socialism, equality and liberation. Some old songs, some newer ones. This year, some songs about the 1984 miner’s strike (40 years ago).

Please come to the sing-along. You can buy tickets at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/leeds-tuc-singalong-miners-strike-40th-anniversary-tickets-930319961047

More information

There’s a Facebook event if you like to be reminded that way https://www.facebook.com/events/3756761431201891

The Holbeck (or The Holbeck Working Men’s Club) address is Jenkinson Lawn, Holbeck, Leeds LS11 9QX

It is thought to be the oldest surviving working men’s social club (1877). (The club ceased to be men-only many decades ago.)

The event is in a room with a bar serving alcohol.

The Holbeck has a ramped entrance and a stairlift to the upstairs performance space. There is a small car park with some accessible spaces, and a wheelchair accessible toilet on the ground floor. Public transport is not great and I would recommend arranging lifts or taxis for the end of the event.

The event is in a wide function room with chairs grouped around small tables. There is a small stage with steps to it. People leading songs will do so either from the stage or the floor in front of the stage, either standing or sitting, with microphones and a PA system.

The venue has a basic air conditioning system and windows only open a small amount at one side of the wide room, and we don’t have airflow data for the room.

You should not attend any communal singing event if you have covid 19 symptoms, cold or flu symptoms, or have any reason to think you may have such a virus.

Department rep by-elections October 2024

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

Department representatives by-election October 2024

The branch committee has called a by-election for where there are department rep roles available, because the election was held later into the summer than originally planned and some members missed the election.

Please think about who would be good to be a UCU rep for your department. In my view, a good union rep will often be someone that colleagues have confidence in, whose judgement they trust, and who is a good listener.

You can find out more about the roles of UCU reps at ucu.org.uk/rep

The deadline for nominations is 12pm Thursday 31 October.

What does a UCU department rep do?

A network of department reps across the university is crucial for maintaining and increasing the strength of the union and ensuring the branch committee learns about problems in different areas.

UCU department reps are a point of contact for union members in that school, department, service or area, and they alert the branch committee to issues concerning members in their area.

Department reps are not always caseworkers and are not expected to represent members in their area with individual problems (although many department reps are caseworkers, supporting members in other departments). Department reps don’t negotiate with local management on behalf of the union – all consultation and negotiation with UCU is done centrally by the negotiating team.

Department reps will try to welcome new staff and make sure they know about the union.

Department rep roles

The committee changed the roles and boundaries changed for the 2024-2026 term of office, with the aim of members electing teams of reps to work together in their area.

See below for who your elected reps are and where there are still vacancies. (This is a by-election, which means you do not need to re-nominate reps who are already elected for 2024-2026.)

Instead of nominating for particular department rep roles or areas of focus (anti-casualisation, postgraduate, equality) these can be agreed later between the department reps elected. (Anyone taking a particular role is also still a general department rep.) This should give reps more flexibility if someone moves mid-term.

In a large department, if a rep wants, the website could list a specific work area to help members to find them and to decide who might best understand their issue. For example, a department rep for the School of Languages, Cultures and Societies might want to be listed with “(French)” after their name, but they would still be a rep for the whole school.

The number listed for health and safety reps includes workload reps. (You can specify “workload rep” or “health and safety rep” in your nominations if you wish but a health and safety reps can change focus to being a workload rep and vice versa, subject to appointment by the health and safety officer and appropriate training.)

Nominations

To nominate a colleague (with their agreement!) please email ucu@leeds.ac.uk, ideally include the word “nomination” in the email subject, saying, for example:

Dear UCU branch administrator

I wish to nominate James Smith for UCU department rep for the School of English

Yours faithfully

Maria García Sánchez

Each candidate needs two nominations by the deadline and to have confirmed by the deadline that they are willing to stand to be eligible for election. Nominations normally have to be from UCU members in the same department, but exceptions can be made for very small departments.

It would be helpful if candidates could arrange to be nominated by not more than two colleagues, copying you in so you know it’s been sent, as excess nominations create unnecessary work.

Department reps and remaining roles available

Professional services

Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures

Faculty of Biological Sciences

Faculty of Business

Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences

Faculty of Environment

Faculty of Medicine and Health

Faculty of Social Sciences

Professional services

Digital Education Service

Claudia Rogers, department rep

Remaining roles available:
1 health and safety rep

Human Resources including ODPL

Jenny Rivas Perez, department rep

Remaining roles available:
3 department reps
4 health and safety reps

IT

Andi Rylands, department rep

Louise Marr, department rep

Remaining roles available:
4 department reps
6 health and safety reps

Library

Emily Haikney, department rep

Remaining roles available:
1 department reps
2 health and safety reps

Lifelong Learning Centre

Rachel Walls, department rep

Remaining roles available:
1 health and safety rep

Research and Innovation Service

Remaining roles available:
3 department reps
3 health and safety reps

Student Education Service (except those listed separately)

Remaining roles available:
5 department reps
5 health and safety reps

Professional services (except those listed separately)

Remaining roles available:
13 department reps
13 health and safety reps

Facilities directorate

Remaining roles available:
3 department reps
3 health and safety reps

Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures

School of Design

Remaining roles available:
3 department reps
3 health and safety reps

School of English

Tony Crowley, department rep

Remaining roles available:
1 department reps
2 health and safety reps

Fine Art, History of Art and Cultural Studies

Remaining roles available:
1* department rep
1 health and safety rep

(*In these areas where the number of 2022-2024 reps exceeds the number of rep roles available for election under the formula for 2024-2026, 2022-2024 reps can all be re-elected if the election is uncontested by new candidates.)

School of History

Remaining roles available:
2 department reps
2 health and safety reps

School of Languages, Cultures and Societies (except Language Centre)

Corinne Painter, health and safety rep

Fabio Sarranito, department rep

Ingrid Sharp, health and safety rep

Leah Wang, department rep

Ruba Khamam, department rep

Sarah Hudspith, health and safety rep

Sarah Waters, health and safety rep

Remaining roles available:
1 department rep

Language Centre

Angela Hume, department rep

Sara Montgomery, health and safety rep

Remaining roles available:
1 department reps
1 health and safety reps

School of Media and Communication

Helen Thornham, department rep

Joanne Armitage, department rep

Miriam Kent, department rep

Remaining roles available:
2 health and safety reps

School of Music

Ewan Stefani, department rep

James Mooney, health and safety rep

Remaining roles available: none

Performance and Cultural Industries

ally Walsh, health and safety rep

Matty Elliot, department rep

Remaining roles available:
1 department reps
1 health and safety reps

School of Philosophy, Religion and History of Science

Remaining roles available:
2 department reps
2 health and safety reps

Faculty of Arts, Humanities and Cultures (office / unless listed separately)

Remaining roles available:
1 department rep
1 health and safety rep

Faculty of Biological Sciences

School of Molecular and Cellular Biology

Remaining roles available:
3 department reps
3 health and safety reps

School of Biomedical Sciences

Remaining roles available:
2 department reps
2 health and safety reps

School of Biology

Remaining roles available:
2 department reps
2 health and safety reps

Faculty of Biological Sciences (office / unless listed separately)

Remaining roles available:
1 department reps
1 health and safety reps

Faculty of Business

Faculty of Business (Leeds University Business School)

Abbie Winton, department rep

Alex Seehaus, department rep

Andreas Georgiadis, department rep

Gulbanu Kaptan, health and safety rep

Jane Holgate, department rep

Stefan Kesting, department rep and health and safety rep

Tao Jiang, department rep

Vera Trappmann, department rep

Remaining roles available:
1 department reps
6 health and safety reps

Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences

School of Chemical and Process Engineering

Remaining roles available:
2 department reps
2 health and safety reps

School of Chemistry

Lavinia Onel, department rep

Sandy James, department rep

Remaining roles available:
2 health and safety reps

School of Civil Engineering

Barbara Evans, department rep

Remaining roles available:
2 department reps
3 health and safety reps

School of Computing

Remaining roles available:
2 department reps
2 health and safety reps

School of Electronic and Electrical Engineering

Remaining roles available:
2 department reps
2 health and safety reps

School of Mathematics

Remaining roles available:
3 department reps
3 health and safety reps

School of Mechanical Engineering

Remaining roles available:
3 department reps
3 health and safety reps

School of Physics and Astronomy

Remaining roles available:
2 department reps
2 health and safety reps

Faculty of Engineering and Physical Sciences (office and unless listed separately)

Remaining roles available:
1 department rep
1 health and safety rep

Faculty of Environment

School of Earth and Environment

Jonathan Busch, department rep

Natalie Kopytko, department rep

Valeria Tolis, health and safety rep

Remaining roles available:
6 department reps
7 health and safety reps

School of Food Science and Nutrition

Remaining roles available:
2 department reps
2 health and safety reps

School of Geography

Remaining roles available:
3 department reps
3 health and safety reps

Institute for Transport Studies

David Watling, department rep

Paul Timms, department rep

Remaining roles available:
2 health and safety reps

Faculty of Environment (office / unless listed separately)

Remaining roles available:
1 department rep
1 health and safety rep

Faculty of Medicine and Health

Leeds Institute of Medical Research (LIMR)

Remaining roles available:
4 department reps
4 health and safety reps

Institute of Clinical Trials Research (LICTR)

Duncan Wilson, department rep

Remaining roles available:
2 department reps
3 health and safety reps

Institute of Cardiovascular and Metabolic Medicine (LICAMM)

Remaining roles available:
4 department reps
4 health and safety reps

Leeds Institute of Health Sciences

Dan Howdon, department rep

Sue Richards, health and safety rep

Remaining roles available:
3 department reps
3 health and safety reps

Leeds Institute of Medical Education

Remaining roles available:
2 department reps
2 health and safety reps

Leeds Institute of Rheumatic and Musculoskeletal Medicine (LIRMM)

Remaining roles available:
2 department reps
2 health and safety reps

NIHR RDN CC

Remaining roles available:
1 department reps
1 health and safety rep

Leeds Institute for Data Analytics (LIDA)

Remaining roles available:
1 department rep
1 health and safety rep

School of Dentistry

Nigel Bubb, health and safety rep

Remaining roles available:
3 department reps
2 health and safety reps

School of Healthcare

Remaining roles available:
Remaining roles available:
2 department reps
2 health and safety reps

School of Psychology

Remaining roles available:
2 department reps
2 health and safety reps

Faculty of Medicine and Health (office and unless listed separately)

Remaining roles available:
4 department reps
4 health and safety reps

Faculty of Social Sciences

School of Law

Amanda Keeling, department rep

Carrie Bradshaw, health and safety rep

Chris Dietz, department rep

Remaining roles available:
1 department reps
2 health and safety reps

School of Politics and International Studies

Charlie Dannreuther, department rep

Lata Narayanaswamy, department rep

Remaining roles available:
2 health and safety reps

School of Education

Richard Badger, department rep

Indira Banner, department rep

Remaining roles available:
2 health and safety reps

School of Sociology and Social Policy

Remaining roles available:
2 department reps
2 health and safety reps

Faculty of Social Sciences (office / unless listed separately)

Remaining roles available:
1 department reps
1 health and safety reps

Notice of scheduled general meetings 2024-2025

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

This is a copy of the formal notice emailed to branch members of the scheduled UCU University of Leeds branch general meetings this academic year – the ordinary general meetings and the annual general meeting.

These are the meetings for all UCU members in this branch.

The branch doesn’t send Outlook invitations for these because some people’s Outlook calendars are not confidential so an invitation could disclose their trade union membership to a third party, which is not allowed. Meeting details will be sent by email nearer the time.

All UCU members of the branch can put items of the agenda – proposals for collective agreement or subjects for informal discussion.

You can find this list of meetings at any time this year at https://www.leedsucu.org.uk/about-us/general-meetings-this-year/

Thursday 17 October, 12.45pm – 2pm

Submit motions by 12pm Tuesday 1 October.

If you want to send a motion to one of the UCU national equality conferences from the branch, this is the meeting to propose the motion to.

This meeting should elect the branch’s congress/conference delegates for the year.

Rule changes motions can be submitted to this meeting (because of the gap between the motion deadline and the meeting).

Tuesday 3 December, 12.45pm – 2pm

Submit motions by 12pm Tuesday 26 November..

Wednesday 29 January, 12.45pm – 2pm

Submit motions by 12pm Tuesday 21 January.

If you want to send a motion to the UCU national anti-casualisation annual meeting, or the national annual meeting of academic-related, professional services staff, this is the latest general meeting to propose the motion to.

Tuesday 11 March, 12.45pm – 2pm

Submit motions by 12pm Tuesday 4 March.

If you want to send a motion to UCU Congress 2025 this is the latest general meeting to propose the motion to.

Thursday 1 May 12.45pm – 2pm, annual general meeting (AGM)

Submit motions by 12pm Tuesday 15 April.

Rule change motions can be submitted to the AGM.

If you want the branch to propose an amendment to another branch’s motion to UCU Congress 2025, this is the general meeting to submit that motion of amendment to.

Deadline for nominations to the branch committee is Wednesday 30 April.

Thursday 12 June, 12.45pm – 2pm

Submit motions by 12pm Tuesday 3 June

There will likely also be some extra-ordinary general meetings (which you or the committee can call) and some emergency general meetings (which elected branch officers can call), which you’ll be notified of separately by email.

General information about general meetings

There’s informal advice on turning your ideas into collective decisions – writing motions – and navigating formal general meetings at https://www.leedsucu.org.uk/making-ucu-branch-general-meetings-work-better/ which includes a link to the formal ‘standing orders’.

Content notes and sensitive topics

There are now content notes on the agenda following recent feedback about when motions received for circulation address sensitive topics. We are working hard to get this right but, as inserting content notes requires subjective assessment of what might warrant a content note, we have also decided to include a summary version of the agenda at the top. Please let me know if you have any feedback about how to make content notes more useful to you.

Who decides the agenda?

All members of the branch (including you!) can submit motions to general meeting. The committee decides the order that members’ motions appear on the agenda (or the president on behalf of the committee if there is no committee meeting), but the motions are not from the committee (unless it specifically says they are on the agenda). Motions only become union policy if they are voted for by the meeting.

Can I vote if I’m a student member?

It depends on your membership type. If your membership type is “student” you are not eligible to vote in general meetings. For more details see https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/5143/Can-students-or-postgraduates-join

Can I register my vote if I can’t attend the meeting?

No. According to the branch rules, only members who attend the meeting can vote. The hope is that, while not everyone can attend every meeting, the members who can attend at that time will be broadly representative of the membership. If you’d like to discuss anything about the rules with one of the branch officers you could email ucu@leeds.ac.uk.

What do I do if I’m unhappy about something in the meeting?

If you’re unhappy about something in the meeting you can – at any time during the meeting – ask the chair to rule on whether something is ‘in order’. The chair will then make a ruling. You can read more about making points of order at https://www.leedsucu.org.uk/making-ucu-branch-general-meetings-work-better/#point-of-order

Members should be considerate of each other in the meetings. It is an obligation of UCU membership to: “refrain from … all forms of harassment, prejudice and unfair discrimination whether on the grounds of sex, gender identity, race, ethnic or national origin, religion, colour, class, caring responsibilities, marital status, sexuality, disability, age, or other status or personal characteristic.” https://www.ucu.org.uk/ucurules

How can I find out what decisions were made?

If you’ve missed the meeting, the quickest informal way is to ask a colleague or your department rep. Formally, the minutes of meetings are circulated in advance of the next ordinary general meeting (but that can be a long time to wait). Motions carried will often be provisionally posted on the website (you can use the search function or look at News filtered by the category ‘branch policy’) in advance of the minutes being approved, but this depends on the workload of the committee members and branch administrator. If you need to know urgently and you haven’t elected a department rep for your area, you could ask one of the branch officers by emailing ucu@leeds.ac.uk.

Joint Trade Unions’ statement on the rise of fascist violence in Leeds and the UK

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

The University of Leeds Unite, Unison, and UCU trade union branches express our solidarity with and support of all communities living in fear of targeted violence. We unequivocally condemn the far-right and fascist rallies, lynch mobs, racist, Islamophobic, and anti-immigrant violence and abuse directed at communities, mosques, and hotels and other facilities for refugees and asylum-seekers across the UK. All our members, students, and wider Leeds community are affected, especially those from Muslim, immigrant and racialised backgrounds. We know many of our members and members’ families are living in fear, worried about safety and how to live a ‘normal’ life at home, socially, commuting to work and school, and about the safety of loved ones across the country.

The City of Leeds and our local area have been subjected to and borne witness to racist and violent gatherings currently being instigated by the far right across the UK. We were horrified to learn that the University of Teesside campus was targeted during violent anti-immigration riots, facing enormous violence as windows were smashed. International students have been subject to arson attacks and many staff and students across the country now face calls to stay at home and to be vigilant in the hope of protecting themselves. In Leeds itself, staff have woken up to swastikas daubed on cars in their local area. 

This wave of fascist violence is very much a University of Leeds issue. Our staff and students urgently need support and understanding. We therefore welcome the University’s signalling of well-being resources in a recent statement, but we also ask that the University puts in place and clearly communicates immediate emergency measures for all students and staff members who may not currently feel safe to travel to work or be on campus. Emergency resourcing is also required to support students of colour and international students who may be away from home and their usual support networks. 

We share our employer’s condemnation of the violence and racism taking place, and we call on University of Leeds’ senior management team to recognise and name the Islamophobic nature of this violence and the rhetoric which stokes and perpetuates it. Threats of extreme physical violence and intimidation are targeted at Muslims – especially women wearing hijabs, People of Colour and people seeking asylum, all of whom are being used as scapegoats for inequality caused by the continued failure of those in power to address poverty and inequality. We condemn all those who fund and fan these flames, and the lack of public challenge over increasingly dangerous rhetoric that has brought us to this point. Hate has no place in our society, and as an education institution, the University of Leeds must play a vital role in bringing communities together to challenge it wherever it arises in the public conversation.

As workers in education, we all have a role in responding now and over the long term. Anti-racist work must be understood as integral to all our lives and responsibilities – we cannot assume it is for others to do. We commit to working with our members to keep developing our immediate and longer term anti-racist work, together. 

We will share details of communities coming together to contest any planned racist gatherings. We urge those who are able to come together to take action, collectively. As trade unionists and anti-racists we stand in solidarity with every person of colour in the UK and in our city and on campus.

We ask that the University:

  • Recognise the right of staff to work from home without line management approval if they fear violence
  • Management to organise safe transport for staff who need to be on campus or fund additional expenses for travelling in a secure manner
  • Recognise the violence as explicitly Islamophobic (as well as more broadly racist) and therefore specifically targeted at Muslim staff and students and all community members of colour and put additional supports in place for these groups
  • As a HE institution and a major employer in Leeds, commit to support minoritised and vulnerable groups, both in the University and the wider city
  • Clearly pledge to anti-racism through education, robust allyship practices, and empowering students and staff to speak up against discrimination and systemic inequalities

University of Leeds UCU
University of Leeds Unite
University of Leeds Unison

LeedsUCU podcast episode 13: branch news 19 July 2024

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

In today’s episode (recorded 8 July): pay and grading review offer, workload, the general election, and remembering Jonathan Dean

With Aisha Walker, Rachel Walls and Alan Smith.

If you prefer your union branch news direct to your ears, search for LeedsUCU wherever you get your podcasts, and subscribe so you get notified about new episodes. 

See all the episodes and transcripts at https://www.leedsucu.org.uk/about-us/podcast/

To join UCU go to ⁠https://www.ucu.org.uk/join

Episode links

https://www.leedsucu.org.uk/support-and-benefits/local-industrial-action-hardship-fund/

Direct links to the LeedsUCU podcast 

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/2Ht1Iks9WPR6qbmGXXOXfS

Amazon Podcasts https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/1f16de89-30ec-444a-83ac-54bcbe0bcac6/leedsucu-podcast

Pocket Casts https://pca.st/pacoaeqd

Also available on Apple Podcasts

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 and we’re joined by Aisha worker, president of University of Leeds branch of UCU, to give us the latest news today. Hi Aisha.

Aisha

Hi, Rachel. Hi Alan.

Alan

Hi Aisha

Rachel

Good to see you both well. Quite a lot’s been happening recently. There’s been some emails this week about the pay and grading. Ohh, it was last week actually, so they’re just running into one another and we’ve had some emails last week about the pay and grading review with the university. So what’s been going on there?

Aisha

Well, this is really exciting because finally, after you know several months of negotiations, we can actually talk about the pay and grading review because I’ve been coming into the podcast studio for how many months now and Alan or Rachel, you’ve been asking me about the pay and grading and I’ve been saying it’s been going really well, but I can’t say. anything. And now you’ve seen the information from the university. You’ve seen the e-mail from us. And you know that what’s going to happen basically is that anybody in grade 2 to 9, everybody in grade 2 to 9 is going to bit of get a bit of a boost in your pay packet in August of this year. And then there’s going to be more to come next year. I’m not going to go into all of the changes right now, but, I think the two really important things to note, apart from more money, which is, obviously that’s a good thing, is that this has come about because of our industrial action. So as I said before, we stood down the MAB, the marking and assessment boycott, in 2022 on the promise that the university would carry out a review of where the grades sit on the pay spine. And that has now happened, and it’s involved all three unions we have worked together, the three of us and we have pushed the university. The university has made significant changes to some of its proposals. For example the time scale they’ve really brought that forward at the insistence of the unions. So it’s really, really good that we finally got a response to this and it’s what we want because it is going to be a pay boost for everybody in grades 2 to 9. But it’s you really you the members that we have to thank for it because it’s your work, it’s your sacrifice. And the talks have been really constructive. And as I say, university management has listened to our concerns and they have made changes in response to our concerns and that’s why we have reached this point. So yes, so it is great news and hopefully we will get the final sign off next week if it’s approved by all three of the trades unions.

Rachel

Great.

Aisha

Right. So it is important that we are able to approve it.

Rachel

Absolutely yes. Thanks to all the members of all three unions. OK, well, that’s … We look forward to hearing more about that, how that goes.

Aisha

Yeah, I think the university is going to put out more information to help people understand exactly how it’s going to affect you individually. OK, we have asked for a calculator so that you can work it out because there are some other changes such as changing the increment date so over the next year everybody will get their increment at the normal time and then their next increment will be in August of 2025. So that’s going to make that the impact of that’s going to be different for different people. So we have asked for a calculator and I think the university will also give us some worked examples again so that you can see how it might affect you.

Rachel

OK. Well, thanks for the. Yeah, the information and the update. And yeah, that sounds useful to have a calculator.

Aisha

Yeah, and thanks to all the Members who came to the meeting on the 11th of July.

Rachel

So we are turning our attention to workload now and, yeah, what’s been going on with workloads?

Aisha

Can I give a big sigh at this point? Because academic colleagues are getting their workloads for the next academic year and we are still seeing people being workloaded to 1650 hours. We’ve seen examples of people being told they’ve got 25 days leave instead of the 26 that we now have. And of course, the 1650 hours doesn’t take into account the extra day of leave and it doesn’t take into account the extra closure days. So,if this is happening to you, please contact your rep or ucu@leeds.ac.uk. We keep raising this with management that people are now being officially workloaded, so it’s not just that the nominal hours are fictional – because we know that the workload doesn’t match what you actually do, we know that if you’re given X number of PGR supervision hours for an example, you’re almost certainly going to be spending twice that much time reading their work and, you know, talking to them and supporting them – but it should at least add up nominally to the number of hours in the working year. Which is now around 1635, not 1650. So if you’re still being workloaded to 1650 with actual work, please do let us know.

Rachel

OK. And you can e-mail ucu@leeds.ac.uk if you have concerns about that.

Alan

So, next up since we last met, there has been a general election which has resulted in a change of government. I imagine it’s early days yet, but do we have any idea how things are going to change?

Aisha

Well, it’s really exciting actually. Of course, UCU is not affiliated to any political party. So we don’t have that that relationship with any specific political party, but we are looking forward to seeing what changes there are in relation to workers’ rights. So the incoming government has promised changes to workers’ rights, to boost workers’ rights to give people additional rights. And I think what we’re hoping for, but I don’t know if it’s going to happen, is that some of the worst trade union legislation will be repealed. So there’s been some really challenging legislation over the past 14 years, there’s the minimum service levels which have only just come in, but which could potentially affect us because we work in education, where if there’s a strike, management has the power to nominate people who can’t strike. Hopefully that will be repealed. I also would like to see a repeal of the 2016 Act, which puts onerous conditions on strike ballots. Firstly, that it has to be conducted by post, it can’t be done online, and, nowadays, when so much is online and the postal service is has sadly been deteriorating under the previous government – I mean that might change. And the second thing is that at least 50% of your membership have to take part in the ballot by post, and that’s a very onerous condition and it’s very hard for unions to make that threshold. We have achieved it several times and generally in Leeds we have succeeded in meeting that threshold, so well done Leeds members, but it is an onerous condition and it does mean that that unions where there’s a strike vote that’s very strongly in favour of strike, maybe fails simply because less than 50% of the membership actually got their votes posted on time, and this is a condition that doesn’t apply to any other kind of vote. It doesn’t apply to parliamentary votes, for example, we don’t have to have 50% of MPs taking part in a vote for a piece of legislation to pass. It doesn’t apply to elections. It only applies to union strike ballots. So maybe that will go. I hope so.

Alan

Well, we look forward to seeing what happens with that. And finally, we were all very sad to learn of the death of Jonathan Dean, who for a long time was the UCU department rep for the School of Politics and International Studies.

Aisha

Yeah, this is really it’s shocking and it’s really sad. Jonathan died suddenly in late May. And he was a UCU department rep for something like 10 years. I think he was a really valued colleague, but also a really valued member of our rep team. He did a great job representing his department, but also representing UCU to the school, encouraging people to join the union, pointing out the value of the union. And he was a regular on our picket line. So he’s going to be missed. He’s going to be missed by his colleagues and also by us as a union. We are we are less without him. And that’s really sad. I wasn’t unfortunately able to go to the memorial event on Monday, because I was away. But I hope that the people there were able to really remember Jonathan, to celebrate his memory and to enjoy a bit of memorial bird watching. Which is very much in keeping with the person that he was. He asked that any memorial donations be made to Leeds UCU and it’s really appropriate for them to go into the hardship fund. Actually, our hardship fund is, sadly, depleted after all of our strike action and our marking and assessment boycotts, so it’s really powerful actually, that anything in Jonathan’s memory will be going to support colleagues if we have to take strike action again in the future.

Alan

OK. Thank you, Aisha. And that’s all for today. So thank you for bringing us the branch news.

Aisha

Thank you.

Rachel

Thank you.

[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.

Solidarity with Professor Emeritus James Dickins

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

We stand in solidarity with Professor Emeritus James Dickins, a dedicated scholar and advocate for Palestinian human rights. The University of Leeds’ recommendation to revoke his emeritus status is unwarranted. Professor Dickins did not encourage any protest at Hillel House and he has a long history of promoting academic freedom.

This case highlights the failure of due process: Professor Dickins was not given any evidence in support of the complaint against him although he provided evidence that contradicts the complaint. Professor Dickins was not given any information about the right of appeal or a timeline for appeal. Finally, there is no information about the procedure for revoking emeritus status in Statutes and Ordinances, so it is not at all clear what process the University has followed.

Transparency and fairness are essential values in institutions of Higher Education but they do not seem to have been followed by the University of Leeds in this case. We demand a transparent process, clearly established in Statutes and Ordinances. 

Sign this petition to urge the University of Leeds to reconsider its decision and uphold the right to express support for Palestinian rights.

LeedsUCU podcast episode 12: no branch news 3 July 2024

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

Today’s episode was due to be recorded 3 July, but, as a member of UCU staff and of Unite LE127 union branch, Alan Smith was on strike, and UCU branch committee members would, of course, not cover his work while he is striking. We have released this special LeedsUCU branch news episode without any branch news, to illustrate that the industrial action has an impact.

With Rachel Walls.

If you prefer your union branch news direct to your ears, search for LeedsUCU wherever you get your podcasts, and subscribe so you get notified about new episodes. 

See all the episodes and transcripts at https://www.leedsucu.org.uk/about-us/podcast/

To join UCU go to ⁠https://www.ucu.org.uk/join

Episode links

Moorland sounds from bbc.co.uk – © copyright 1966 BBC – https://sound-effects.bbcrewind.co.uk/search?q=NHU05104247

Direct links to the LeedsUCU podcast 

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/2Ht1Iks9WPR6qbmGXXOXfS

Amazon Podcasts https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/1f16de89-30ec-444a-83ac-54bcbe0bcac6/leedsucu-podcast

Pocket Casts https://pca.st/pacoaeqd

Also available on Apple Podcasts

Transcript

Rachel

We were unable to record Episode 12 of the podcast because of a strike by UCU staff who are members of Unite LE127 branch. The committee of UCU University of Leeds Branch stands in solidarity with UCU staff and hopes an agreement is negotiated to settle their dispute. In the meantime, here are the sounds of a moorland from the BBC sound effects archive.

[Sounds of a moorland, late spring/summer, with ring ouzel alarm calls and song raven, curlew, red grouse, meadow pipit, sheep and flies, and a stream]

LeedsUCU podcast episode 11: branch news 25 June 2024

UCU University of Leeds Branch Posted on by

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.

If you prefer your union branch news direct to your ears, search for LeedsUCU wherever you get your podcasts, and subscribe so you get notified about new episodes. 

See all the episodes and transcripts at https://www.leedsucu.org.uk/about-us/podcast/

To join UCU go to ⁠https://www.ucu.org.uk/join

Episode links

Choosing your UCU department representatives

Direct links to the LeedsUCU podcast 

Spotify https://open.spotify.com/show/2Ht1Iks9WPR6qbmGXXOXfS

Amazon Podcasts https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/1f16de89-30ec-444a-83ac-54bcbe0bcac6/leedsucu-podcast

Pocket Casts https://pca.st/pacoaeqd

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.