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January 18th, 2024:

Branch Bulletin – January 2024

Colleagues,

 

In this bulletin:

BGM Reminder & Agenda

Contact Hours Per Credit

Tax Relief on Subscriptions

 

 

Branch General Meeting

 

A reminder that our first BGM of the new year is next week: Weds 24 January, 1.30-3.00 via Teams. Members for whom we have a UCLan email address have already been sent a calendar appointment. Anyone else will need to join via the link.

If you would like a calendar invitation for future meetings, make sure one of the addresses on MyUCU is your UCLan one (it doesn’t have to be the “preferred” one).

Agenda items will include: Redundancy prevention & our attempts to obtain a management guarantee of no compulsory redundancies; Management abuses of grade G agreements, and our collective dispute over these; A proposal to add a local levy to Branch subscriptions, in order to build the hardship fund; The forthcoming General Secretary & NEC elections; Branch membership and density.

 

 

Contact Hours Per Credit

 It has been reported to UCU that management in some Schools have proposed a standard 2 hours per 20 credits. In early 2016, UCU negotiated an agreement on contact hours per credit. The agreement is that there’s a band within which the number of contact hours is within the discretion of the subject team. For contact hours beyond the discretionary maximum and minimum, approval of school management is required. Enforcing a “standard” would be in breach of this agreement.

 

Level Min contact hours per 20 credits Max contact hours per 20 credits Hours per credit
3 40 60 2-3
4 40 60 2-3
5 30 60 1.5/3
6 30 60 1.5/3

 

 

Tax Relief on Subscriptions

Members are reminded that HMRC allows tax relief on 67% of UCU subscription fees. Claims can be backdated over four years. If you are doing a tax return at the moment, you can claim it there. If not, you can claim by post or telephone: details are here https://my.ucu.org.uk/app/answers/detail/a_id/469

 

 

 

 

UCLan UCU Branch Committee

 

 

 

 

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Branch Bulletin – October 2022

Colleagues,

 

In this bulletin:

Branch General Meeting reminder

TPS Pensions

Workload

 

Branch General Meeting

 

A reminder that our first BGM of the academic year is next week: Weds 18 Oct, 1.30-3.00 via Teams. Members for whom we have a UCLan email address have already been sent a calendar appointment. Anyone else will need to join via the link.

If you would like a calendar invite for future meetings, make sure one of the addresses on MyUCU is your UCLan one (it doesn’t have to be the “preferred” one).

Agenda items will include: “UCU Rising” dispute and new ballot, Discussion of Equality issues, and a proposal to establish a Branch Hardship Fund to support members in future disputes.

 

TPS Pensions

 

On 1st October the latest changes to the Teachers’ Pension Scheme resulting from the ‘McCloud Judgement’* were made. This judgement relates to an age discrimination case that was successfully brought against public sector pension schemes. To address the age discrimination that took place in 2015, changes have been  made to public sector schemes, including the TPS. Importantly, the latest changes bring about potential access to certain time limited benefits (such as the opportunity to buy out some of the actuarial adjustment that would otherwise happen for people taking their pension before their normal pension age).To check how this might affect you, check the latest UCU information as soon as possible: https://www.ucu.org.uk/tps

 

Workload

 

Attached to this bulletin is the new university Academic Workload Guidance document, which supersedes all other university-wide and school-specific workload documents; its contents are the same as the “Academic Workload Model” document at https://msuclanac.sharepoint.com/sites/DevelopmentPortal/SitePages/Academic-Workload-Management.aspx. Management and UCU have worked together on this document and have agreed its contents for 2023 on the understanding that the negotiations will continue into the next academic year with the goal of producing for 2024 a stable version that includes elements that had to be excluded from the 2023 version because, partly due to lack of time, Management and UCU had not reached an agreement on their inclusion. Management have told UCU that they have brought the new document to the attention of all academic staff. When Management circulate workload documents, members rightly contact us to check whether it has been agreed with UCU: so in this case, the answer is that it has been agreed with UCU, but only for the next academic year, 2023–24.

 

There remains one respect in which UCU feel the document is unsatisfactory because Management failed to make reasonable efforts to negotiate a satisfactory position. This is the treatment of annual leave. The academic contract stipulates that a request for up to six weeks of annual leave to be taken consecutively will not be unreasonably refused. What the Academic Workload Guidance document should make clear, but doesn’t, is that provided the request is made sufficiently early in the workload planning process and provided you are flexible over the timing of the six-week block, there is a normal expectation that a refusal would be unreasonable and that therefore the request would be granted. We hope this will be rectified for the 2024 version, but in the meantime if your request for up to six weeks’ consecutive annual leave is not granted, please contact UCU and UCU will intervene if the failure to grant the request was unreasonable.

 

 

 

UCLan UCU Branch Committee

 

 

 

 

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