University of Central Lancashire UCU

Strike dates

UCU has informed University Management that, following the decisive mandate given by members in the industrial action ballot two weeks ago, the branch intends to take strike action on the following dates:

Thursday 25^th & Friday 26^th March

Thursday 15^th & Friday 16^th April

Monday 19^th & Tuesday 20^th April

UCU also informed the University that, in accordance with the ballot result, members will take action short of strike action commencing Monday 12^th April.

Why are we taking action?

Thanks to the efforts of UCU and the UCU members at risk of redundancy, the number of posts remaining formally at risk of redundancy has been whittled down to 5.0 FTE, with 8 individuals, all UCU members, remaining at risk. And for this remaining 5.0 FTE too, voluntary solutions would be available, principally through redeployment, if Management will make a genuine rather than merely tokenistic effort to make those solutions work. The university needs flexibility in its workforce to meet the changing needs, but this flexibility must be achieved by adjusting the duties and deployment of staff, with retraining where necessary, rather than by a crass and callous policy of simply firing staff when not all of their current duties continue to be needed. In these circumstances it is hard to believe that Management insist on pursuing compulsory redundancies, redundancies that a competent and humane management could so easily avoid and a betrayal of the Security of Employment Policy so hard-won by UCU.  But it is clear that unless determined industrial action by us all, the membership of UCU, forces Management to lift the threat of compulsory redundancy from the eight members at risk, Management will pursue their unnecessary and inhumane strategy time and time again.

What is strike action?

Strike action means not doing any work for all of the days specified above. This includes, for instance, time before 9am and after 5pm and includes any activity which is part of your work such as teaching, administration, meetings, emails relating to work, marking, research or conferences where you are directly or indirectly representing your employer. It also means not doing any preparation for work that you are due to do when you return to work after your strike.

In other words, you don’t do any work at all on strike days! That means no Teams, no Blackboard, no Outlook…In a nutshell, do not log on to the University network on strike days.

Do I have to tell my line-manager (Head or Deputy head of School) I am going on strike or intend to take action short of a strike before the action begins?

No. You do not have to tell your employer whether you plan to take industrial action in advance of the strike – and the Branch Committee advises you to not do so, because doing so will enable Management to minimise any disruption the action is aimed to cause and therefore undermine the dispute. UCU has already provided Management with all the information about the action required by law, including those categories of members who we are calling on to take action.

When is it OK to tell my line manager I am taking industrial action?

Once the industrial action has begun and you are back to work following the strike action you should respond truthfully to any query from your line manager as to whether you have taken or are taking industrial action. You should not, however, respond to any such query while you are on strike.

Are there any exemptions from having to take industrial action?

No. All UCU members employed at UCLan are asked to take action in accordance with the ballot mandate and are expected to do so.

Should I reschedule lectures or classes that are cancelled due to the strikes?

No. This is part of the action short of a strike that members voted to undertake (see ‘action short of strike action’ below). Rescheduling classes will dilute the impact of the strike action.

I am booked to be on annual leave during (one of) the strikes – what should I do?

If your annual leave is essential you should take it as planned and make a donation to the UCU strike fund. If your leave is not essential you may wish to move it so that you can participate in the action alongside colleagues.

Am I in breach of my contract if I go on strike?

Yes, taking any industrial action is a breach of contract. However, as UCU has carried out a legal ballot and complied with all legal formalities, the law protects workers from dismissal whilst taking part in lawful industrial action or at any time within 12 weeks of the start of the action and, depending on the circumstances, dismissal may also be unfair if it takes place later. This kind of dismissal has never happened in higher education.

Can my employer deduct my pay when I take part in industrial action?

Yes, the employer is entitled to deduct your pay if you participate in industrial action. For strike action, the union contends that any deduction should be at 1/365^th of any annual salary or equivalent. For part-time staff, deductions should only reflect the pay normally due for the work not undertaken and no more.

For action short of a strike, your employer has the right to refuse to accept the partial performance of your contract and to deduct up to 100% of your pay while you are participating in the action so long as they make their intentions clear. In recent years, most employers have not deducted salary in respect of action short of a strike.

How will taking strike action affect my pension?

Most employers do not withhold pension contributions and therefore participation in strike action has not generally affected pensions. In terms of your final pension, the impact of participating in the industrial action called by UCU is miniscule compared to the benefits that the union has protected through action in the past.

Action short of a strike (ASOS)

As well as voting to take strike action, members also voted to take action short of strike action (ASOS). This will commence on Tuesday 12^th April – and not before.

What is ‘action short of a strike’?

While a strike is a concerted stoppage of work, action short of a strike (ASOS) is normally action which affects only certain aspects of your work.  Action short of a strike in these disputes means we are asking you to:

1. work to contract
2. not cover for absent colleagues
3. not reschedule lectures or classes cancelled due to strike action
4. not undertake any voluntary activities

Action short of a strike begins on Monday 12^th April and will continue until the union calls it off.

Working to contract means abiding strictly to the terms that your contract of employment (or other formal documents relating to your employment) specify as your hours of work; breaks; workload; or other matters. For further guidance see https://ucu.org.uk/working-to-contract

Refusing to cover for absent colleagues

This means that unless your job is wholly or predominantly about covering for other staff, you should refuse to provide cover. An example of this might be where a colleague is unwell and you are asked to take on their teaching or other work.

Refusing to reschedule lectures or classes cancelled due to strike action

This includes any scheduled teaching activity which would have taken place on one of UCU’s strike days and applies to all UCU members, not just those directly responsible for the relevant lecture or class. You should refuse to reschedule this activity or share materials that would have been covered in the class or lecture when asked stating in response that you are supporting UCU’s action short of a strike.

What should I do if I have already rescheduled strike hit classes or if my Head of School has already rescheduled them? Once the action has started you should not teach rescheduled classes whoever has rescheduled them.

What does refusing to undertake any voluntary activity mean?

Not undertaking any voluntary activity means that where you have a choice as to whether you undertake some work (i.e. it is not specified in your agreed workload), you should not do it. If you are in any doubt about what you are required to do under your contract, check with a UCU branch officer.

Does ASOS include a marking or assessment boycott?

We are not asking members to undertake a marking or assessment boycott at this stage. However, members have provided a mandate for such action and Management have been notified that the union may escalate to a marking or assessment boycott if the dispute is not resolved.

Strike rally – Thursday 25^th March

We will be organising an online ‘rally’ with guest speakers on the first day of strike action, Thursday 25^th March – details TBA, which will include updates on the dispute and other suggestions for how you can support the action.

UCU Branch Committee

Roles & Responsibilities when you have a UCU Caseworker

A downloadable version of this document is available HERE

Confidentiality

Your UCU caseworker will never discuss your situation or share information with your manager, with HR or with any colleague (but see below) without your express consent.

Caseworkers do discuss cases with other caseworkers and with members of the Branch Committee.  We have regular Casework Meetings, to ensure consistency of approach and to enable us to cover for each other if, for instance, you needed help while your regular caseworker was on leave or off sick.  It is therefore important to remember that what you tell your caseworker will be shared with the Branch Committee. Exceptions to this are made when a Branch Committee member has a conflict of interest, in which case they will absent themselves from the meeting while your case is discussed.

If a case is serious, such that there is a risk of dismissal or the possibility of legal action, we will also inform the UCU NW Regional Office.

Once a case is concluded, we will normally keep notes and other records for one year, in case the issues resurface. After that they will be destroyed, and any reoccurring issues will be considered as a new case.

Your Responsibilities

Your UCU caseworker will advise you to the best of their ability, and in accordance with Branch policy. You are not compelled to follow that advice, but if you do not, we may decide to withdraw representation. Similarly, we do not normally represent members who are receiving external advice (e.g., from a solicitor) except in exceptional circumstances where this has been discussed and agreed with UCU.

Once you have been allocated a caseworker, you should talk to them before communicating with your manager, or HR, or anyone else, on any matter relevant to the case. Such communications can seriously undermine your case, and may lead to us withdrawing representation.

Please try to stay focused in your interactions with your caseworker, and treat them with respect. Remember we are typically supporting multiple members at once, and that we all have “day jobs” as well.  One way to try and keep focused is to consider what outcome you would like from the process. You should reflect on this and try and communicate this to your caseworker.

All casework will have an end point. Sometimes a case ends because some other process reaches its conclusion (e.g., a disciplinary process). A case may end because the resolution that you sought has been achieved.  There are other times when a case ends because the Branch Committee judge that the caseworker and member have taken all the steps that could reasonably have been taken.  This could mean that the casework finishes without the member achieving their desired outcome.

We recognise, of course, that many of our members are under tremendous stress when they contact us, and we will do our best to help, but if you need emotional support you should speak to Staff Counselling or the Education Support Partnership (links below). We will consider withdrawing representation from any member who makes excessive demands or who behaves unreasonably towards their caseworker.

https://msuclanac.sharepoint.com/sites/StaffWellbeingandSupport
https://www.educationsupport.org.uk/

UCLan UCU Branch Committee

This is the UCLan UCU workload advice for 2019-20
(click here to download a PDF version: UCU workload advice 2019)

Please send to ucu@uclan.ac.uk any comments or queries about this advice and any requests for support.

Key advice

• UCU and management have jointly produced a Workload Model Expectations document. You should read this document carefully. This is available at https://intranet.uclan.ac.uk‌/ou‌/hr/Pages/Appraisal.aspx.
• The workload plan should match workload actuality, and neither should exceed 1581 hours (for 1.0 fte).
• Workload must be agreed with you at appraisal. Do not agree your workload if you do not think it is fair and appropriate. If you can’t agree it, contact UCU for support.
• You and your line manager share responsibility for making sure your workload is not excessive and conforms to the university’s principles.
• Read the sections of this UCU Workload Advice document that are relevant to you.
• UCU recommend that you take responsibility for compiling your own draft workload plan, listing all the tasks you undertake and the hours you think should be allocated to each. This can be used in creating the workload plan agreed with your line manager through appraisal.

Further advice in this document:

• Developments since 2018
• Ongoing negotiations (2019–2020)
• Appraisal and workload planning
• Progression between grades
• Teaching hours
• Marking and Preparation
• Research and scholarly activity
• Duties that involve travel away from the normal place of work
• List of common duties and estimated time allocation norms

Developments since 2018

• UCU and Management are working together towards having just two, agreed, workload documents: one a document setting out enduring principles, and the other an annually updated document giving guidance on practicalities of implementation. We don’t yet have these two documents, but hope they might be ready for 2020.
• There are NO official school or faculty workload documents; all official workload documents are university-level, and are located at https:‌//‌‌intranet‌.‌uclan‌.ac‌.uk‌/ou‌/hr‌/Pages/‌Appraisal.aspx. Current university workload documents are the following.
  • A new Workload Model Expectations document, which articulates a set of principles agreed by UCLan Management and UCU to guide academic staff though the process and our shared understanding. The line manager should ensure that as part of the appraisal and workload management process, both appraiser and appraisee should consult this document. The document contains just what it had been possible to agree by May 2018, and should be revised and augmented next year. UCU strongly support the use of this document in planning workload.
  • The Academic Workload Considerations document. Although UCU never agreed this as a document, UCU did agree the first two sections of it; and the document has this year been updated to note that the third section has not been agreed with UCU. UCU support the use of the first two sections of this document in planning workload. Remember that its final section is to be understood not as a list of binding tariffs but rather as a set of suggestions to be used only if helpful.
  • The Academic Workload Model document. This need not be consulted: it was never agreed with UCU (though UCU were consulted on it); it is superseded by the other documents and will eventually be replaced by a version agreed with UCU.

Ongoing negotiations (2019–2020)

In the ongoing negotiations in the coming academic year, UCU are seeking to:

(i) Agree, develop, organize a programme that

1. comes up with realistic and representative measures of the time common tasks normally take
2. creates a list of tasks that recur with some frequency across the university

(a–b) when completed to a sufficient extent would be included in the workload guide­lines.

(ii) Revise the Workload Model Expectations document and other documents used at appraisal to include the items covered in subsequent sections of this document: progression between grades; teaching hours; marking and preparation; research and scholarly activity; duties that involve travel away from the normal place of work.

Appraisal and workload planning

Workload planning takes place during appraisal. Appraisal is a year-round process, and through appraisal, workload may be varied during the course of the year. Though some elements of the future academic year’s workload may be planned long in advance, it is expected that the workload for the coming academic year is largely finalized in appraisal in May and June. Appraisals for planning workloads for 2019–2020 may have been delayed by Management’s wish to be working from the Workload Model Expectations document newly agreed with UCU.

Progression between grades

Progression between grades is facilitated by a development plan that comprises duties that form part of the workload plan and are agreed at appraisal.

• Under certain circumstances there is a right to the opportunity to progress; under other circumstances there is no such right, but there is nevertheless a right to have a development plan and workload that accommodates the aspiration to progress.
• A duty that forms part of a development plan may be graded at the target grade if and only if it can be successfully completed within one academic year and has not yet been successfully completed.
• Progress in the development plan should be reviewed and recorded at appraisal.
• L–SL progression: In the appraisal before you increment to Point 36, your appraisal should involve agreeing a three-year development plan such that if this plan is successfully completed, you will progress to SL at the end of it. UCU aim to have fuller advice on this available by next year.
• Progression from research-only roles: contact UCU for individualized advice.
• Progression from Grade G teaching roles to Grade H: contact UCU for individualized advice.

Teaching hours

The national contract stipulates a weekly maximum of 18 hours and an annual maximum of 550 hours of ‘formal scheduled teaching responsibilities’. Locally there has been no history of debate over whether there are any student contact hours that should be considered to not be covered by these maximums. Contact hours are hours that consist of interaction with students that results in transfer of knowledge to the student; the level of the teaching (undergrad, postgrad) is immaterial. Contact hours include supervisions and tutorials, and both face-to-face and electronically-mediated communication, which may be synchronous (live) or asynchronous (e.g. email). Contact hours are not the same as timetabled hours. Because the onerousness of any teaching responsibility is no less onerous by virtue of not being timetabled, we argue that the contractual maximums should pertain to all student contact hours: otherwise the contractual maximums could be circumvented by operational sleight of hand that decreases the amount of timetabled teaching without decreasing the amount of teaching.  This is not just a hypothetical scenario: when the default number of timetabled hours was increased a few years ago when the normal undergraduate teaching year was increased to 30 weeks, this was coupled with an explicit presumption that a greater proportion of contact hours would be timetabled and there would be a reduction in the number of untimetabled contact hours; but with the normal teaching year now reduced to 24 weeks, the number of untimetabled contact hours wouid be expected to increase again.

The contractual maximums are understood not to apply where modules involve an unusually large amount of contact time for the student. In UCU’s view an unusually large amount of contact time for the student would be more than 60 hours per 20 credits, which is the university’s default maximum. However, UCLan Management have never tried to argue that any specific piece of teaching is exempt from the contractual maximums.

Marking and Preparation

Under UCU’s interpretation of the national contract, it should normally be the case that no more than 40% of teaching activity should consist of student contact hours, unless your own preference is to exceed that cap. The other 60% of teaching activity would normally consist of the marking and preparation associated with the contact hours. By long-standing practice, 90 minutes for marking (of both formative and summative assessment) and preparation is normally allocated for every 60 minutes of student contact. But across the university there are situations where a lecturer teaches on a module but contributes no marking to it, or where a lecturer contributes to a module a disproportion­ately large amount of marking relative to the amount of contact hours they contribute: in such cases it is agreed that for each contact hour contributed to the module, an hour of preparation is allocated, with a separate allocation for marking based on reckoning the actual time required for it. A principle of reasonableness needs to obtain when applying uplifts for marking and preparation: if there is no marking of formative or summative assessment to be done in association with a given bit of teaching, then there is no warrant for an uplift for marking; and if there is no preparation to be done for a given bit of teaching, as for instance with ad hoc tutorials, than there is no warrant for an uplift for preparation. Nevertheless, across teaching activity as a whole, the 40% cap on contact hours would still apply.

Teaching preparation is the preparation for a particular teaching event, the event of teaching a particular module to a particular group of students in a particular place at a particular time. This is distinct from writing new module content or teaching material where none previously exists: if it is necessary to write new module content or teaching materials, this should receive a separate workload allocation. An insufficiency of this separate workload allocation has historically been known to be a significant cause of excessive workload stress, so this is something to keep a particular eye on if you are a new member of staff or are due to deliver teaching you have not delivered before on a module where you are expected to provide the content and materials.

Research and scholarly activity

• Contractual minimum RSA. For all staff on the national academic contract, no less than 175/1581 of annual workload should be allocated to self-managed research and scholarly activity. UCU interpret ‘self-managed’ to mean that it is primarily you that has the discretion to decide how to use this time, provided that you can demonstrate you are using it in a professionally responsible and appropriate way. UCU would like this contractually assured element of research and scholarly activity to be explicitly itemized on every workload plan; this is a point not yet agreed with Management, and schools currently differ on whether they itemize it. But even if the element is not explicitly itemized, you should still make sure that the workload plan allows at least 175/1581 of your annual workload to be spent on self-managed research and scholarly activity. The typical use of the contractually assured element of research and scholarly activity is maintenance of our disciplinary expertise, keeping abreast of the scholarly literature.
• Additional unfunded research time. The university funds its academic staff not only to teach and undertake academic administration but also to undertake research and its equivalents (– knowledge transfer, professional practice). The amount of unfunded research time available to members of a given academic team will depend partly on how much time the team as a whole has remaining once its teaching and administrative duties are taken care of. Because the volume of teaching required fluctuates with student numbers, so too the amount of unfunded research time may be expected to fluctuate inversely. UCU have asked Management to provide an up-to-date default norm for unfunded research time, but Management have not yet provided one. (Management have previously given a default figure of, in effect, 141/1581 (= 20% of total workload, less self-managed RSA), but are no longer endorsing that as a norm.) Of course, however many hours are allocated to unfunded research time in a given workload plan, the planned outputs should be proportional to the time allocated; if, say, it takes you 300 hours in total to produce an article, and you are allocated 100 hours of unfunded research time, then your workload plan should reflect the aim of producing one third of a paper per year.

Duties that involve travel away from the normal place of work

It is uncontroversially accepted that time spent travelling to a place of work other than the usual place of work counts as working time. In addition, UCU maintain that when working away from the normal place of work, all time spent away from home is working time. In principle, all such working time should be included on the workload plan; and if you are not given the option to decline to travel away from the normal place of work then certainly all time spent away from home should be added to the workload plan. However, this would make many activities, such as attending distant conferences, prohibitively expensive, and provided you’re given the option not to travel, the actual time allocated in the workload plan may reflect what is affordable for the university.

List of common duties and estimated time allocation norms

This is work-in-progress. Please send us any significant duties omitted from this list, as well as your views on the suggested hours.

For the following duties, we’ve been unable to suggest what a normal allocation of hours might be.