News

UCU Rising – strike action and ASOS

Members will have received notification of the outcome of the UCU national ballots on pay and USS pensions. UCLan UCU members were balloted on pay only. The result of the national pay ballot was as follows:

Are you prepared to take strike action? Yes: 81.14%, No: 18.86%

Are you prepared to take action short of strike action? Yes:88.75%, No: 11.25%

Turnout: 57.71%

Following a meeting of the union’s Higher Education Committee on Thursday 3^rd November, the decision was made to take strike action on 24^th, 25^th and 30^th November, followed by action short of strike action commencing Wednesday 23^rd November (see below); and a marking and assessment boycott commencing in the new year (the timing of this has not yet been specified). It is now up to the employers to signal their intent to engage with the union and enter into meaningful negotiations to prevent escalation of the dispute and the disruption that would inevitably follow. The Branch Committee calls on – and expects – all members to heed the call to take strike action on the days specified.

Important: You do not need to notify Management of your intention to take strike action and you should not reply to any communication asking you to do so.

Pickets: We shall be picketing University buildings on 24^th and 25^th November. Please gather near the entrance of the Engineering Innovation Building (adjacent to Adelphi Square) at 09.00 on those days. A UCU national demonstration has been called for 30^th November, so we will not be picketing that day. We are awaiting news as to whether there will be transport organised from the North West. Plans are also being drawn up for a Regional Rally in Manchester on Friday 25^th; look out for an email from the NW Regional Office.

Action Short of Strike (ASOS) Guidance

The following are the UCU instructions and advice on ASOS, commencing 23^rd November, adapted to the local circumstances at UCLan and approved by UCU Regional Office and where necessary Head Office.

• Don’t undertake duties that aren’t on your workload plan and that can’t be reasonably understood to fall within some more general item on the workload plan.
• Don’t reschedule classes and lectures cancelled due to strike action unless your workload plan has been modified to include this additional task.
• As always, don’t accept a workload plan that doesn’t match reality or that is over maximum hours.
• Your line manager may revise your workload plan by convening an appraisal meeting with you to agree revisions to it. The process of agreeing proposed revisions should involve considering any objections you might have, and your reluctance to weaken the force of ASOS is a valid consideration. If your line manager insists on certain revisions to your workload plan despite your objections, and you are reluctant to accept your line manager’s demands, don’t just refuse them but rather contact UCU for advice and support.
• Do not upload or share materials related to classes that have beencancelled as a result of strike action. Remove uploaded materials (related to classes that have been cancelled as a result of strike action) if and only if they have not already been shared with students.

For further information, please see the ‘Taking Strike Action’ FAQs here .

Redundancy Prevention

As members were informed at the Branch General Meeting in October, Management has proposed a plan to address what it claims is over capacity in areas of declining student recruitment in the Faculty of Culture and the Creative Industries (FCCI). UCU has met with all subject and course teams affected by Management’s proposed reduction in staffing in FCCI and has also been representing and advising individual members that are affected by the proposals. Branch officers are meeting with Management every week to try and find a way forward that addresses the problems of falling recruitment in some areas whilst ensuring both that no UCU member’s livelihood is jeopardized and that the staff concerned are properly consulted and have the opportunity to scrutinize and challenge Management’s proposal and suggest their own solutions. The primary objective of the branch committee is to ensure we do not end up repeating the scenario we had in FCCI in 2019 where members were threatened with compulsory redundancy. The next step is that Management will reconsider and revise their proposals in the light of the discussions with UCU and the responses from the affected subject teams and their members, including any requests for VR or redeployment.

Academic Organization Restructure

Members will have seen that the Management have proposed yet another restructure, the second in two years. The unions have not yet been consulted or fully informed about the plan. In response to union concerns about possible implications for members’ jobs, Management have assured us that there will be no job cuts below Management grade. However, history tells us that following a major restructure, some schools may undergo ‘rationalisation’ which may entail job losses, and UCU is committed to protecting the livelihood of every member, including those on management contracts and in management roles; we therefore remain vigilant, and have demanded that the unions be consulted.

Course Leader Role

For many years UCU have been attempting to work with Management to get the proper definition of the Course Leader role properly documented and to bring university practice in line with the proper definition; the discussions with Management are ongoing but are at Management’s usual glacial pace. Even though the role definition remains inadequately documented, UCU have always held a very clear position about what the definition is. Management have recently sent Course Leaders what appears to be an instruction to organize and conduct elections among students on the course for the role of student rep. This is not a legitimate instruction. Firstly, it is not part of the CL role. Secondly, there is a standing university agreement that academic staff will not be required to undertake duties that are not inherently academic and so do not by their nature inherently have to be done by academic staff; organizing student elections is not an inherently academic duty.

Target annual hours

For non-SPH academic staff, your target annual hours should be reduced as follows:

* In recognition of the extra bank holiday for the royal funeral, 7.4 hours (pro rata) for staff on academic contracts and 7.25 hours for academic staff on professional services contracts;

* 2 hours (not pro rata) as a special Christmas allowance (to be used, if possible, for attending a team Christmas celebration);

* 1/365 of your initial annual target (1581 pro rata) per day of industrial action; for full time staff, this is a reduction of 4.33 hours.

Teaching Preparation

UCU are aware of a number of unilateral attempts by various school managements to allocate amounts of preparation time that are in breach of the agreement with UCU that for every contact hour there will be at least one hour of preparation for that teaching event, with marking hours separately allocated per student, provided that across all non-studio-based modules on a given workload, contact hours will be no more than two thirds as many as the hours allocated for the preparation and marking associated with those contact hours. (Where more than one hour of preparation per contact hour is required, more should be allocated on the workload plan.) If you’re aware of any such breaches, please bring them to UCU’s attention. Additionally, UCU advise you to refuse to agree any workload plan, and to seek the support of a UCU caseworker, if your line manager is asking you to take on a teaching load in which contact hours (i) are more than two thirds as many as the hours allocated to the preparation and marking associated with them or more than the hours allocated to the preparation for them and (ii) are not higher than 60 hours per 20 credits.

UCU Branch Committee

‘UCU Rising’ campaign

As members will be aware, following a motion carried at the union’s Higher Education Sector Conference in June, a ballot on industrial action on the employers’ 3% pay offer is currently underway and closes on Friday 21^st October, with recommendation of voting Yes to both strike action and action short of a strike. Unlike in previous ballots, this is an aggregated ballot, which means that there needs to be a turnout of 50% across all branches being balloted, rather than in each individual branch. There have been a number of online meetings and events organised by the national union and regular email updates, including how to register that you have voted or to request a ballot paper if you have not received one. The Branch Committee urges all members to cast their vote in this important ballot.

A message from Elaine Hill, UCU Green Rep

Are you concerned about climate change? Curious about whether food on campus is ethically sourced? Wondering whether energy use in university buildings could be more sustainable and efficient? Or even wondering about how to incorporate teaching and projects in such areas into your programmes? If the answer to any of these questions is ‘yes’, then please come along to a UCU green meeting and get involved.

Green meetings will take place on the following dates 2 – 3.30 pm and will be hybrid meetings, so you can attend in person or via Teams (physical rooms to be announced in due course). Whatever, your green interests, please come along and share them and get involved:

12th October, 16th November and 14th December 2022; and 1st February, 15th March and 17th May 2023

Previous green meetings have identified the following broad areas for investigation and action

1. Ethical investments and banking: e.g. is UCLan investing in fossil fuels?
2. Food and land use: e.g. animal welfare and food on campus, bottled water and provision of water fountains, single use items generally, compostable (but not composted) containers, food waste management
3. Energy and carbon management: e.g. promoting greener travel, bike storage, charging points for electric vehicles, university travel policies.
4. Sustainability and curriculum: how to get climate and sustainability into curricula.

These are broad areas and can be focussed according to members’ specific interests and, so please come along and let us know if there is anything in particular that you want to do, or have knowledge of expertise in. We also want to build a Green New Deal claim to UCLan to help bring about changes in these areas – more information here: https://www.ucu.org.uk/green-new-deal

UCU also offers training in running climate learning events and decarbonising and decolonising the curriculum for members, so please take a look. There is more information on UCU training and green issues generally here: https://www.ucu.org.uk/environment

UCU has a long history of involvement with green issues and in its founding Congress in 2007 committed to play its part in ‘greening the campus’ and ‘greening the curriculum’ and to assist campaigns for sustainable national policies and local practices. They were also the first union to introduce green representatives to address these issues in further and higher education. Let’s build on this. If you are interested on any of the above issues, please contact Elaine Hill on EASHill@uclan.ac.uk

Impact of student appeals on workload

It has been brought to UCU’s attention that students’ being granted further attempts at modules run in one academic year, where the resubmission will fall within the next academic year, is causing issues with workload for some staff. This may happen if a student has, for example, had a first submission which has gone to a board in January, been referred, and then had a second submission which has gone to a board in June and failed. It can take several weeks for appeals to be processed, and if a subsequent third attempt is given, this may well lead to the student having to submit again in the early part of the next academic year. Consequently, the time needed for staff to supervise and mark the work will also fall in the next academic year, but may not be captured on workload for that year. If anyone is experiencing this problem, please get in touch via ucu@uclan.ac.uk

‘Enough Is Enough’ rally, October 1st

On Saturday 1^st October, a number of events are taking place in the NW to protest against the Cost of Living Crisis. There will be a rally in Preston on the Flag Market from 12 noon to 2pm.

The UCLan UCU branch banner will be there, so please come along to the Cenotaph on the Flag Market at 12 noon and show your support.

Reminder of Branch General Meeting

The first Branch General Meeting is on Wednesday 5^th October, 13.30 – 15.00 via Teams.

Items for discussion at the meeting include the national pay dispute. Members are reminded that they are entitled to time off to attend branch meetings, so please do your best to attend.

UCU Branch Committee

Email: ucu@uclan.ac.uk

Twitter: @UCLanUCU

Workload adjustment for extra bank holiday

Line managers of academic staff have been instructed to ensure that the normal 1.0 FTE (full time equivalent) workload maximum of 1581 hours is reduced to take account of the extra bank holiday. The appropriate reduction is 7.25 hours (pro rata), which is the reduction automatically enjoyed by staff on professional services contracts. UCU’s impression is that line managers have failed to proactively ensure the reduction is made, so we urge members to adjust their own workloads and where necessary seek confirmation from the line manager; UCU support is available with this in the unlikely event that it is needed.

Workload adjustment for strike action

Remember to make sure that the annual workload you are attempting to accomplish in the current year is reduced to take account of the work that your strike action has left undone and unpaid for. The appropriate reduction is 1581/365 hours per day of strike. For the full 13 days of strike action, this equates to a reduction of 56.3 hours.

Strike pay donation to Ukraine

UCU asked Management to donate pay docked for strike action to the Disasters Emergency Committee Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal. Management have failed to communicate any response.

2022–23 BGM dates

UCU Branch General Meetings are held each year at 1330–1500 on the Wednesday of the 3rd, 13th and 23rd of the 24 teaching weeks, which next academic year will be 5^th October 2022, 18^th January 2023 and 19^th April 2023. Reminders will be sent in advance of each meeting. Management have a standing commitment to ensure events are not scheduled to clash with BGMs.

A word from a new rep…

Being a rep is a new adventure for me. I hope to be of use to you as members and our branch collectively.

It is due to the steady, ongoing, clear and calm involvement of union reps, that I found my footing as a reluctant academic, learning the game of academia. I have had help with various issues and with their support I have become more autonomous and empowered as an academic.

When Management threatened the end of my course, and  closed down one course I was most passionate about and teaching on, it was the solidarity of my course team and the unfailing presence and willingness of the union to support us in fighting for our survival. It was you, in the branch, who fought for our jobs not to be axed. That was a huge gesture and I want to give something back by becoming a rep myself. I have gone and done the relevant training (it’s not as dreary as you might think, I encourage you to try it out), I made good new friends on the branch committee, dusted off the activist within, stood on picket lines, and am working towards familiarising myself with all the procedures to do what is right for you, the membership.

I bring a true passion for wellbeing, what it means to be yourself and well, not what others tell you to do to be well. Working life is integral to how we maintain health in all its facets, yet the shifts in the climate and conditions of our sector make this increasingly difficult to navigate and maintain. As your rep, in times of challenge, I hope to be supportive. I trust that the solidarity of belonging to a union, and the reminder that we are our union, allows you to dance with me, as I find courage and strength, with a good dose of creativity, to do my best in this role. Vielen Dank,  Kerstin.

UCU rep training

If you are interested in undertaking UCU rep training, with a view to working for the branch in future, please contact UCU (ucu@uclan.ac.uk). The next iteration of the first rep training course will take place online, 1000–1500 on Thursdays 9^th, 16^th, 23^rd, 30^th June 2022. Your line manager should as far as possible be supportive in freeing you from other commitments at those times in order to enable you to attend.

Calling staff in research-only roles

If you are in one of the research-only roles (Senior Research Fellow, Research Fellow, Research Associate, Senior Research Assistant and Post-Doctoral Research Assistant) or are a Research Assistant, the Branch Committee would be grateful if you’d get in touch to discuss the issues that particularly affect these roles, including potential undergrading and lack of opportunities for progression and promotion to higher grades.

AGM report

Thank you to everyone who came to our AGM on 20^th April. The first item for discussion was the “Four Fights” dispute. Assistant Secretary Mike Eslea presented the results of the recent ballot for industrial action, which saw a significant fall in turnout compared with the previous ballot, six months earlier. Although we voted 57%-43% in favour of strike action (and 80%-20% in favour of ASOS), turnout was only 36% and so the ballot failed to reach the 50% threshold required under tory anti-union laws. UCLan will NOT therefore be taking part in the next wave of action.

Mike also presented results from the recent member survey regarding the Four Fights strategy. 60 members responded (thank you if you did) and they were almost all people who had been active participants in the strikes so far. Responses were evenly divided over the question of whether combining four different fights was a good idea, but almost everyone agreed that all four were important issues (workload being the most important, by a short head). A large majority thought that aggregated ballots were preferable to the current disaggregated approach, which leaves only a small number of branches bearing the cost of striking. These results informed our delegates’ votes at the Special HE Sector Conference that was happening that day.

Next, Branch Secretary And Rosta presented his annual report, focusing on the main branch priorities:

• Security of employment. The previous VC’s commitment that there would be no compulsory redundancies was reversed by the current VC, who insists that circumstances may well arise in which, regardless of the financial health of the university, Management would regard compulsory redundancies as necessary. The joint unions are working with Management on an updated Security of Employment policy: for teaching staff, the goal is that in situations where Management reckon an academic subject has a potentially problematic surplus of staffing relative to student demand, they will involve UCU and the subject team in seeking consensual resolutions (such as variations in staff deployment) that will forestall Management issuing threats of redundancy. The updated policy will also delineate more carefully the stages that would follow any such threat, and it remains standing branch policy that if a threat of redundancy is issued then UCU will begin the process of balloting for local industrial action and will take what industrial action is necessary to protect members’ livelihoods.
• Decasualization. Thanks to the efforts of the unions, the university policy is that Fixed-Term Contracts (including hourly-paid) should be used only as a last resort and only with an explicit written justification, which must be of a sort agreed with the unions to be valid. The incidence of FTC abuses has drastically diminished in recent years, but nevertheless instances in which managers have failed to observe the university policy still come to light: therefore UCU encourage all members on FTCs to contact the Branch Committee to check that their FTC is licit.
• Workload. Management continue to drag their heels in reconvening the workload committee. But nevertheless, even in those schools (e.g. Medical School) where workload management remains unacceptably bad, it has been improving, and the quantity of workload-related UCU casework has drastically fallen this year. It continues to be a branch priority, and we are confident of being able to resolve workload issues when members seek support.
• Academic Freedom (freedom from threats to livelihood and from harassment) and Equality are always priorities for the branch, but no instances of cases involving either have emerged at UCLan in recent memory.
• Pay has historically not been foremost among members’ priorities, but the cost-of-living crisis has changed that. Pay is of course negotiated nationally, not locally. UCLan’s main source of income comes from student fees, so for as long as student fees remain capped, the university’s scope for paying salary increases comes not from increasing fee income but from reducing non-staffing spending and increasing the proportion of income spent on staffing.

Branch Treasurer Cath Sullivan presented the financial accounts for 2020-21. The Branch had spent only £100 in the year, in affiliations and donations to the local Trades Council and Manchester Hazards Centre. We ended the year with £508.57 in the bank.

Your UCU Branch Committee 2022-23

At the AGM, elections were held for the Branch Committee for 2022-23. No new nominations had been received in advance, so the existing Committee was nominated as a slate and elected nem con:

And Rosta [Branch Secretary]

Andrew Baron [Union Learning Rep]

Cath Sullivan [Treasurer/Health & Safety Rep]

Elaine Hill [Membership Secretary/Green Rep]

Kerstin Wellhofer [Branch Officer]

Michael McKrell [Branch Chair/Health & Safety Rep]

Mike Eslea [Assistant Branch Secretary]

Peter Lucas [Branch Officer]

Tara Styles-Lightowlers [Vice Chair/Equality Officer]

Also elected as a Health & Safety Rep, but not to the Committee, was Douglas Martin. Welcome to the team, Dougie!

Support striking colleagues in FE

UCU branches in seven Further Education colleges are taking strike action over the failure of the employers to offer a pay rise that keeps pace with the cost of living crisis, the rate of inflation and the drop in the value of FE pay over the last decade. The branches all returned a substantial majority for strike action and action short of strike action and easily met the threshold of 50% required by the anti-trade union laws. The activists in these branches deserve great praise for all that they have done so far.

The branches taking action are; Burnley College, Bury College, Hopwood Hall College, City of Liverpool College, Oldham College and Nelson & Colne College Group (action commencing on 18^th May) and The Manchester College, (starting 20^th May). If you live near any of these colleges an can spare the time, please go along and visit the pickets – your solidarity will be much appreciated. There will also be an online rally on May 18^th at 1pm – the link will be sent out by the NW Regional Office.