#WeAreTheUniversity – Part I

Last Friday, just as I was about to leave Union House, Amanda reminded me it’s our third and final National Recruitment Week next week (week beginning 14 May). This regular event can be met in the office with a range of responses, from “OK, where’s the banner and the stand materials? Who’s on the rota?” to “Really? Again? But we have [insert urgent and depressing problem here] to deal with next week!”

I have to admit, my feelings were closer to the latter this time, as first thing Tuesday I will be attending yet another meeting regarding yet another consultation which could result in colleagues losing their jobs.  We simply haven’t got the time to think about something else…

And then, as I took a moment on Sunday to enjoy the Bank Holiday sunshine, I thought, actually, how can we not afford to do this?

We have six more weeks of term time, and six more weeks before our Annual General Meeting. There has never been a more important time for recruitment – if you think this year has been bruising, then next year will be even worse.

It is time to gather together as a community and to show that “We Are the University.”

During the strike weeks, the hashtag #WeAreTheUniversity became familiar to Twitter users: but even if you are not a keen social media user, you will understand the sentiment. We long since decided to stop calling the Senior Management Team “the University” in our communications (as in, “the University has decided…” this or that), because we are the University, not senior management. So few of the important decisions now are taken without any demonstrable benefit to education or research.  We need to take a stand, and we need to do it via every means available to us.

Support your union, and help us to support you. Please, do whatever you can to help us recruit more members: talk to your colleagues, have honest discussions about how you are going to manage the pressures of a consultation in your department. Tell them to visit ucu.org.uk/join – it’s so easy to join the union.

And please don’t think it won’t happen to you: the two departments in the University that came top in the country in REF2014 are now looking to the next academic year with many fewer staff and with severely challenging recruitment due to by arbitrary decisions by the Senior Management Team. Those that remain wonder what the future will bring. As far as we are concerned, we want the future to be in the hands of the university community, and we hope, so do you.

Recruit a friend, put “LUNCH AT THE UCU AGM” in your diary for 15 June, and join the effort to save jobs, education, research, and community – for everyone here: 12:15pm for lunch, Building 44, Room 1041.

 

 

 

UCU consultation on UUK proposals – information for Southampton UCU members, 5 April 2018

As you will know from UCU emails and, if you are following the debate on Twitter, from numerous blogs and Twitter threads, members now must take part in an e-ballot on the choice whether or not to accept UUK’s proposal for a Joint Expert Panel. The consultation opened Wednesday 4 April at 12 midday and closes at 2pm on Friday 13 April.

You should receive a personalised link to the e-ballot. Do not delete this email: it has your unique voting link in it. If you have not received an e-ballot email, the quickest way to resolve this is to request a new ballot using the form below. Will help to have your membership number ready (can be found via the MyUCU portal on the UCU webpage).

We will have an informal Branch Meeting on Friday 6 April (4pm, 02 / 1089 [L/T D], Highfield) and an EEGM Wednesday 11 April (3.30pm, LT/B, Avenue). MEMBERS ARE ENCOURAGED TO ATTEND BOTH MEETINGS IF POSSIBLE. Friday’s meeting will be a chance to let us know your views prior to the formal meeting on Wednesday.

The e-ballot consultation is on the UUK proposal made on 23 March 2018: whether to accept the proposal and suspend our action, or to reject it and continue the strike. The proposal outlines a new forum for reaching consensus; it does not constitute a definitive offer regarding our pension:

  • UUK have proposed a joint expert panel (JEP), nominated in equal numbers from both sides, to agree key principles to underpin the joint approach of UUK and UCU to the valuation of the USS fund. The JEP “will make an assessment of the valuation” and make a recommendation to the JNC aimed at providing a guaranteed [e.g. Defined Benefit] pension.
  • Future negotiations will “reflect the clear wish of staff to have a guaranteed pension comparable with current provision” and include discussions on “comparability between USS and TPS.”

Plus

  • The 100% Defined Contribution (January 2018) proposal is “off the table.”
  • The Pensions Regulator (tPR) has indicated in a letter to USS that they will engage with the JEP.

The branch executive are not yet recommending a position in this important vote – we will meet on Monday to see if we have a consensus based on current information; however, the USS Board meet on 11 April, and they will also need to endorse the proposal if it is to be workable. Above all, this is your pension and we respect the right of members to reach their own decisions. We will support the majority decision of our union following this democratic process. Your branch executive have a range of views regarding the vote and the proposals and we are happy to discuss these with you as personal opinions (with the caveat that we are none of us actuarial or pension experts).

We urge you to read the email from Sally Hunt about the consultation, sent 4/4/18, and consider the various briefing materials from UCU and colleagues in other branches:

Below we summarise the UUK proposal and the different sides of the argument, to the best of our understanding:

VOTE YES: 

If the majority vote YES then UCU will suspend the industrial action but keep our legal strike mandate live until the proposal is formally noted at the USS Board .

Reasons you might consider voting yes (to accept the proposals)

  • The offer of JEP and willingness to negotiate was a key demand – now met.
  • To suspend the industrial action – in the interests of students and colleagues, or in light of hardship/detriment. Accept that we can restart action if needed.
  • In the opinion of several lead negotiators, we have negotiated the best offer possible (the impact of strike was limited – we have not shut down the Universities and timing means less impact due to exam period etc. Note that some Universities are planning to strip out content from exams so students are not disadvantaged and this could reduce impact.)
  • The DB deal we were offered and rejected in March (1/85 DB accrual up to £42k, but with inflation revaluation only up to 2.5% CPI) represents some movement by UUK, notably in retaining commitment to DB in short term, and the offer to put in more money into our pension than they have before. This is a sign of willingness to move in the right direction.
  • This will take the 23 January JNC 100% DC option off the table.
  • Useful blog/information: Mike Otsuka

VOTE NO:

If the majority vote NO then UCU will continue with currently planned strike action (16 April onwards) and have a fresh ballot to escalate the action further in the Autumn. UCU will ask the employers to further improve their proposal so that it contains a ‘no detriment’ clause (to commit the employers to paying more into our pension to preserve current DB – their unwillingness to do this was a factor in bringing about the current dispute).

Reasons you might consider voting no (to reject the proposals)

  • More strike action could provide more leverage and stopping now may lose momentum and support.
  • The proposal is not a long term DB deal which many UCU members want.  (Reference in Jarvis’s letter to “meaningful” defined benefits is the language used to describe the DB deal rejected in March)
  • The JEP and valuation requires us to trust UUK and our employers.  The JEP may have little authority, no time-scale, and no way of reaching a decision. USS may not be able to delay submission of the 2017 valuation for the JEP so this may only influence the next valuation. This does not return us to the September valuation so the scheme may still be considered to be at risk of future deficit.
  • USS leadership may not accept JEP or JNC recommendations. USS might accept a move to Collective Defined Contribution (CDC) but this is not possible under current regulatory framework. CDC is not as good as DB. Accepting the proposal may open up CDC possibility.
  • Useful blog/information: Sam Marsh

 

 

Outcomes of the General Meeting, 24 October 2017

As members will be aware, we held a General Meeting this lunchtime to update the membership on local matters, and to discuss the USS valuation and the potential for a national dispute.  The President’s report highlighted the current position of the University after the results of the TEF and the NSS, citing some sadly prophetic words from national UCU’s own briefing on TEF, released in late June. We also briefed on progress and developments regarding our local priorities, set at our Strategy Day: appraisals, MEQs, consultations, and settlement agreements.

Our invited speaker Chris Mason, UCU Pensions official, and our own Denis Nicole, who sits on UCU’s National Executive Committee, helped shed light on some of the more detailed and contentious issues surrounding the pensions valuation, and there was a lively discussion about what the branch felt was important to understand about pensions, what strike action might mean, and what kind of strike action we felt able to support.

Thanks for a well-attended meeting!

Two draft motions for the special conference and meeting to be held in Manchester on 9 November 2017 were submitted to the GM for approval.  The discussion did much to clarify what matters to members of the branch, and helped everyone understand better the issues at stake.  It was to the credit of the members attending that this respectful and productive debate resulted in amendments that were unanimously approved.  They are reproduced below.

We are still looking for a third delegate to attend the 9 November events on our behalf – it is essential that we are well represented, as if we do not use our representation to its maximum benefit, we may end up with a call to action that does not reflect well our priorities here.  If you are willing to represent us (we will pay your expenses!) please get in touch with the branch via email, or on 023 80592364 as soon as you can.

Many thanks!

*****

Motion for Special HE Sector conference to determine national UCU industrial strategy

Motion on industrial action to protect pension rights

Conference notes

  1. That the willingness to take industrial action is necessary to defend USS pensions.
  2. That a marking boycott is not an effective threat in many institutions because of the increasingly casualised workforce, and a boycott’s disproportionate burden on a subset of the full membership.

Conference believes

  1. That well-supported work-to-contract and full strike action are the only effective means of delivering a meaningful national action.

Conference resolves

  1. To ballot for industrial action with strike action plus work-to-contract not before January 2018; with escalating strike action as necessary.
  2. To increase the quality and quantity of advice to branches on effective work-to-contract strategies.
  3. To escalate the political campaign to win the argument for not changing the pension scheme.

 

Motion for meeting of pre-92 USS branches to determine a response to proposals in respect of USS:

Motion to resist ideological interference in USS proposals

Conference believes that

  1. Predicting a possible future unsustainable deficit via a disputed methodology has provided an ideological justification for the privatisation of collective Defined Benefit schemes and movement into individual Defined Contribution schemes.
  2. The recklessly prudent change in investment strategy to ‘manage risk’ and the Pension Regulator’s recent re-evaluation of the covenant are ideologically driven rather than rooted in reality.

Conference resolves

  1. To state in all UCU literature that we insist that employees should not pay for this constructed deficit, either in increased contributions or in reduced benefits.
  2. To encourage the USS JNC to resist inappropriate intervention from the Pension Regulator.
  3. To refuse to accept detrimental changes to the USS pension scheme by identifying viable solutions which allow retention of secure benefits for members.

 

“What’s a JNC, then?” What your union has been doing for you this week

It’s been a hectic week (well, couple of weeks, really) at Southampton UCU HQ. Even while we’re all slowly uncurling from the brace position of Week 0 and greeting our new and returning students, our intrepid committee and caseworkers have been going about campaigning on pensions, negotiations, training, representation, committee meetings, liaising with our sister campus unions – all part of the rich tapestry of local branch business.

UCU leaflets and desk ornaments

Union campaigning materials in the autumn sunshine, accompanied by the Heart of the Union and Tony, the AUT Brain.

The focus (highlight?) of the week has been the two Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC) meetings on Thursday 12 October, the morning devoted to matters concerning all campus unions, and the afternoon to matters solely relating to UCU members.  The JNC is perhaps the most important event of each term, as it is where we initiate, debate, and complete formal negotiations with university management.  Any matter that has an impact on our terms and conditions of employment will eventually end up tabled at JNC: for instance, in September, we established new ground rules for policy development and approval, where University policy affects our T&Cs – and JNC is where all that work is finalised.  Most importantly, JNC is where we can hold the university to account if we feel that things have not gone – or are not going – according to the law, or our negotiated agreements, or to good practice.

We covered a great deal of ground yesterday in these meetings and some matters deserve write-ups of their own, just so this update doesn’t get too long.  For each, there is a tl;dr summary, but if you want to know more, I’ll be providing more detailed coverage over the weekend (13 Oct: I’ll be adding links as I write the more detailed posts).

  1. Pensions: The University has made its position clear, and will be issuing a press release soon.  We are very disappointed that the response has not engaged with the detailed criticisms of the valuation.  (In other news, we’ve continued campaigning for the consultative ballot on national strike action over the threat to USS.)
  2. Education matters – module evaluation scores and timetabling: We raised significant issues from our members relating to the conduct of module evaluation questionnaires and the inappropriate uses to which scores are being put, and we questioned reasons for the policy of retaining MEQ data on employees for six years.  We requested an urgent review of the Timetabling Policy, in terms of its incompatibility with the Equalities Act, and in the way some faculties are failing to implement flexible working requests.
  3. Appraisals and ERE Reward policies: We delivered robust criticism of the implementation of the ERE Reward policies, particularly appraisal, and established that the University has been operating outside our negotiated agreement of 2014.  The policies will now undergo urgent and long overdue review.

Other matters can be summarised briefly here. We raised several incidences of the University’s failure to respond to FOI and data access requests, and received assurances that the team dealing with data access has been strengthened. Also under the umbrella of communication, we reminded management that if they are going to use NSS results on feedback to, um, encourage individuals and departments to do better, they they need to up their game on feedback to us: focus group activity, working groups, suggestion email addresses… Management tell us that they engage with staff in a variety of ways, and are always seeking input and acting on it, so if that’s the case, we need to see the outcomes.

Two matters will need further discussion and work before our next JNC in March, so I’ll leave them with you to come back to us: the “expectation” of turning student emails around in three days (turnabout is fair play, so if you are left weeks without a response from HR or management, do let us know); and the imposition of Clarity [link to intranet; not for public users] as sole agents for university business travel.  We say this decision relates to our terms and conditions, particularly for those of us who self-fund our research travel, so we have insisted that it be referred to JNC’s Policy Review Group.  Please let us know if you have any difficulty arising from this (currently) unnegotiated decision.

Your UCU branch president,
Laurie

 

 

Southampton UCU General Meeting – 29 March

Members are invited to attend the next UCU General Meeting which is being held on Wednesday 29 March at 12.15pm in room 85/2207.  The topics of the meeting are:

Experiences with appraisal, two years in; and

A forward look at REF and TEF

We are now into the second year of the new appraisal process and have received a variety of concerns from members, both appraisees and appraisers, on the new system, particularly in relation to moderation at Faculty and University level, and the requirement within Faculties for final scores to conform to the “bell curve” of expectations.  The meeting will provide a forum at which you can raise your concerns, which we can then take forward with management.

With both REF and TEF on the horizon we will be discussing the impact of these processes on your current roles: in particular, possible changes in pathways (from balanced to teaching only) and how this fits with your career plans. We welcome your ideas and contributions, especially if you have concerns you would like to raise.

As we will be providing a light sandwich lunch could you please email Amanda (ucu@soton.ac.uk) if you will be attending, and any special dietary requirements, by Thursday 23 March.  Lunch will be available from 12.15pm with the meeting commencing at 12.30pm prompt. 

Universities are International – Open meeting 1 March

UCU is holding an open meeting for staff to discuss Brexit and international issues.  We are concerned by the impact of recent political decisions on our staff and students and would like to engage with colleagues to understand more about the issues that are important to you.

At the meeting we will discuss how we are campaigning on your behalf, including details of our policy charter, and how we will be engaging with management at University of Southampton to take your concerns forward. 

The meeting is being held on Wednesday 1 March at 12.30pm in room 6/1083.  It is open to UCU and non-members alike so please encourage your colleagues to attend.

If you are unable to make the meeting but have questions/queries that you would like raised, please email ucu@soton.ac.uk

 

UCU Anti-casualisation Open meeting – 23 November 2016

Are you or your colleagues employed on a fixed term/hourly paid/zero hour contract? Do you feel treated less-favourably than permanent staff?  Do you face difficulties planning your future career development?  Or even face financial problems through insecure contracts?  If so, we would like to invite you to attend a meeting to discuss your concerns.

The campaign against casualisation is one of UCU’s national priorities and we are delighted that Jonathan White, UCU’s Bargaining Policy and Negotiations Official, will address the meeting to discuss the work UCU is doing to improve working conditions, and to help move staff onto contracts that give them stability and continuity of employment.

You do not need to be a member of UCU to attend this meeting.

Please join us at:

12:30 to 13:30

Wednesday, 23 November 2016

Room 58/1007 L/T C (Murray Building)

Highfield Campus

Southampton UCU General meeting – 12pm 9 November

Colleagues

The coming year is going to be very busy for Southampton University UCU.

The new University Strategy puts many jobs at risk and we have to decide the Union’s approach to the proposed changes.  At a national level, we have the ongoing Industrial Dispute, along with extra pressures from EU exit and the Higher Education Bill.

We will be holding our General Meeting on Wednesday 9 November in room 58/1007 (Murray Building L/T C) from 12pm – 1.30pm.  Please join us for lunch and help guide the direction of Southampton University UCU over the coming months.  For catering purposes please email your attendance and any dietary requirements by Friday 4 November to Amanda at ucu@soton.ac.uk

We look forward to seeing you there.

 

Fighting racism in Southampton – 1 October 2016

The following message is sent on behalf of Southampton and South West Hampshire Trades Union Council

We have had news that the same group of Fascists that came to Southampton in July this year are planning to return this Saturday 1st October 2016. They are planning to hold an anti-immigrant protest under the banner ‘White Lives Matter’ but they have not publicised where or when in our city they plan to do this. Information will come out nearer the time but what we do know is that this is not a solitary event they propose but one of many and they have also announced an event in Portsmouth along the same lines to take place the week after on 8th October.

There is a proposal for those interested in a counter-demonstration as we had in July to meet at the Bargate at 11am in the city centre. It may be a ‘false flag’ operation with a no-show from the Fascists but just in case many want to meet and be prepared should they do. All are invited to come along as last time and Police have been made aware so should be in attendance also.

There is a meeting to discuss this on Tuesday evening held by Southampton Stand Up To Racism at 7pm in the West Itchen Community Trust, Ropewalk Centre, 53 Derby Road, Southampton, SO14 0DJ. All are welcome!

Open meeting for academic-related, professional staff

Dear colleagues

UCU is holding a meeting for academic-related professional staff at levels 4 and above on Wednesday 27 July from 12- 1.30 pm in room 32/3077.  We would like to provide an opportunity to discuss issues that are specific to you and to understand how UCU can work to improve working conditions for you at the University.

A light lunch will be provided so if you wish to attend please email Amanda at ucu@soton.ac.uk so we can cater accordingly.

Many thanks