In this bulletin:
BGM Report
University of the Future
L-SL Progression
NEC Elections
Workload & New Regulations
Adjustments to Annual Workload Hours
BGM Report
Thank you to all the members who attended the Branch General Meeting in January. The Branch heard an update from the Secretary, And Rosta, about the threat of redundancy facing several teams as a result of course closures. You will recall that our e-ballot last year was strongly supportive of strike action if necessary to defend these colleagues’ livelihoods. Fortunately, the negotiators have continued to make good progress in this, and we do not yet feel that we need to move towards a formal postal ballot while that remains so. Meanwhile, as the University has reported better-than-expected financial performance last year, we will be pressing for a reversal of the fractional reductions and stalled progression that many members have suffered.
Next, the Treasurer, Mike Eslea, reported on the development of the Branch Hardship Fund, which is being built up as a result of our new local subscriptions. These subs are adding approximately £5,000 per month to the fund, which means that by the time the subs are up for review at the AGM, we will have roughly £60,000 in the bank. If we used this money to fully repay colleagues suffering 100% pay docking due to industrial action, we could potentially support 600 person-days of action. This could be extremely effective, particularly if only certain areas of the University were targeted. Mike will present some more detailed scenarios to the AGM before we decide whether to change the subs for next year.
The next item of discussion was the upcoming national ballot on industrial action over pay. Andrew Baron presented the Branch Committee’s view that the HEC decision to ballot, following a tiny majority voting in favour in an e-ballot with dismally low turnout, was tactically foolish, especially at a time when so many universities are in financial trouble and threatening redundancies. We do not, therefore, propose to make any GTVO efforts for this ballot.
Next, the BGM discussed management’s plans to insist upon teaching cover for colleague absence. UCU’s position has always been that individual course/module teams are the best placed people to decide how colleague absence is handled, and that management’s “supply teacher” model might be counter-productive, as well as stupidly expensive if workloaded properly.
We also discussed the “University of the Future” project – see separate item below.
Lastly, there was some discussion of the University’s name change. Members expressed surprise that the change was approved by OfS despite objections from Lancaster. It appears that the bulk of the work to implement the change will fall to professional services colleagues, but members were asked to let UCU know if it seems likely to cause any issues for academics too. Email ucu@uclan.ac.uk
University of the Future
Block teaching: Management have agreed with UCU that for each course where a move to block teaching is being considered there will be direct unmediated discussion between Management and the course team to determine whether the move to block delivery is suitable for the course. If those discussions have not yet happened for the course teams you belong to then the course’s inclusion in block delivery will not have been decided yet. If you or your course team find that your school management is not abiding by this agreement then you can ask UCU to intervene on your behalf to ensure the agreement is honoured. Email us on ucu@uclan.ac.uk, including if possible the names of the UCU members in your team.
L-SL Progression
Are you due to progress from Lecturer to Senior Lecturer? You should be due to progress from Lecturer to Senior Lecturer if you are currently at Scale Point 38 (top of Grade H) and have not chosen to remain at Grade H rather than progress to SL. However, the chances of this progression actually happening are much increased if you engage the support of UCU. We are currently working to secure the progression of the batch of UCU members that have already engaged our support; if you contact us then we will add you to the batch. Email ucu@uclan.ac.uk
NEC Elections
In the last few days, you should all have received your voting papers for the election of a new UCU Vice-President, NEC delegates and an assortment of other national roles. Please do use your votes! Turnout is usually very low, so a small number of votes can make a big difference. Normally, the Branch Committee does not make a specific recommendation of who to vote for, but this time we feel that the vote is so important, given the foolishness of some of the decisions made by NEC recently (see BGM report above) we urge all members to vote for Dyfrig Jones for Vice-President, and for the other candidates recommended by Dyfrig here: https://dyfrigjones.com/necslate
Workload & the Effects of New Regulations & Policies
When it comes to workload, the university’s Academic Workload Guidance (linked below) is paramount and is not superseded or rendered inapplicable by new regulations and policies. For example, a recent change to the regulations has potentially increased the time required for moderation by several hundred percent: nevertheless, you can only be expected to follow the new regulation if your workload allocation for moderation is increased accordingly; and it is your line manager’s responsibility to increase it. A further example is the appearance in the university timetabling policy and various other school management communications of measures to cover for the absence of module tutors: you can only be expected to comply with these measures if they are consistent with the standing university agreements on academic workload and academic working times and locations.
https://msuclanac.sharepoint.com/sites/DevelopmentPortal/SitePages/Academic-Workload-Management.aspx
Adjustments to Annual Workload Hours
- As mentioned in the last bulletin, for the current academic year, we were given an extra day of annual leave. For academic staff, this means that your target annual workload total (1581 hours, pro rata) should be reduced by 7.4 hours (pro rata).
- All staff were also given an extra two hours off for Christmas events. For academic staff, this means that your target annual workload total (1581 hours, pro rata) should be reduced by 2 hours (not pro rata).
Best wishes
UCLan UCU Branch Committee