Pay dispute update
Re-ballot – last few days
Reminder of Branch AGM
Pay dispute update
Branch delegates attended a meeting yesterday with the General Secretary and senior negotiators Jon Hegerty and Justine Mercer, to discuss the current disputes. Jo Grady apologised for the confusion last week around whether the strikes should be paused and acknowledged that the online poll was poorly worded and should not have conflated multiple issues into a single question. She promised that future e-polls will be better. She also seemed very confident that UCU will break the 50% threshold in the current re-ballot, giving the union a renewed mandate to continue and escalate action in the coming months, if necessary. Jon Hegerty then explained the current position in the negotiations as follows:
On the USS Pension Scheme, the new offer is a good one, and members in the USS branches will be balloted on whether to accept it. This does not involve UCLan, as we are a TPS branch, but it is still very good news for the 60 or so colleagues at UCLan who have USS pensions. This would be a significant win for the union.
On pay, there is no agreement, and we remain in dispute. However, the employers have stated that they consider the discussion closed and will not negotiate on pay any further. The small increase for this year (5% for most UCU members) has already been imposed at UCLan (2% now and another 3% in the summer) and it would certainly take significant sustained industrial action to bring the employers back to the table on this issue.
On the other three “fights”, casualisation, inequality and workload, Jon stressed that there is no deal on offer yet. What we have been offered is terms of reference for future negotiations on these issues that could lead to a deal at some point. This is progress compared to what was originally proposed, but is obviously far short of what we were hoping for. However, the employers have said that these talks will only take place if UCU suspends industrial action. We therefore have to choose whether to join the other trade unions in the talks or to continue fighting on our own.
An informal poll was sent in an email from the General Secretary to members today, asking if they are in favour of being consulted on the pay and the non-pay issues, ahead of another Branch Delegate Meeting on 29th March and the next meeting of the Higher Education Committee on 30th March. Soon after, we will know the re-ballot result. Assuming it has been won, members will be asked to decide whether to join the negotiations, whether to be formally consulted over the terms of reference, and whether and when to start a marking and assessment boycott. We will also discuss all these issues at our AGM (see below)
Re-ballot on pay dispute – last few days
The re-ballot to extend the industrial action mandate closes on Friday 31st March
If you have recently returned your ballot paper, please use the link below to let UCU HQ know. You can use the same link to order a replacement ballot paper before Sunday 26th March.
https://yoursay.ucu.org.uk/s3/ucuRISING-ballotupdate
The last ‘safe date‘ for posting your ballot paper so it arrives in time is Tuesday 28th March
Branch AGM – reminder
Members are notified that UCLan UCU Annual General Meeting will take place on Wednesday 19st April, from 13.30 – 15.00 on Teams (check your email for the link).
AGM provisional agenda
Election of the Branch Committee
Branch Secretary’s report
Treasurer’s report
Equality Officer’s report
Membership Secretary’s report
Health and Safety report
Any Other Business
Nominations to the branch committee
Nominations for election to the Branch Committee should be submitted by e-mail to the Branch Secretary, And Rosta (and.rosta@gmail.com) by 18.00 on Tuesday 18th April. Each nomination must be supported by separate emails from two members (one nominating, the other seconding) and an email from the nominee accepting the nomination.
