Loughborough UCU

Tag: Professional Services

  • LUCU Weekly Restructure Update Meeting – For All Members

    Following the announcement of proposals on the forthcoming Professional Services restructure, we are inviting all branch members to a series of meetings to provide updates, discuss developments, and gather your views.

    These meetings are an important space for us to come together as a union, to support colleagues who may be directly affected, share information, and collectively explore alternative proposals to reduce costs and protect jobs.

    All meetings will take place online via MS Teams, from 13:00–13:50 on the following dates:

    • Friday 22 May
    • Wednesday 27 May
    • Friday 5 June
    • Wednesday 10 June

    These meetings are open to all members. We strongly encourage attendance from colleagues who may be directly affected, as well as those not currently at risk. Your presence and solidarity matter. Members have been emailed a link to join the meetings, if you can’t find the link please get in touch with the branch by emailing ucu@lboro.ac.uk.

    If you have ideas or suggestions for alternative ways to make savings that could help mitigate redundancies, please come along and share them. Your expertise and insight are vital during this consultation period.

    This is a moment where collective action and unity can make a real difference. We hope to see as many of you there as possible.

  • LUCU Weekly Restructure Update Meeting – For All Members

    Following the announcement of proposals on the forthcoming Professional Services restructure, we are inviting all branch members to a series of meetings to provide updates, discuss developments, and gather your views.

    These meetings are an important space for us to come together as a union, to support colleagues who may be directly affected, share information, and collectively explore alternative proposals to reduce costs and protect jobs.

    All meetings will take place online via MS Teams, from 13:00–13:50 on the following dates:

    • Friday 22 May
    • Wednesday 27 May
    • Friday 5 June
    • Wednesday 10 June

    These meetings are open to all members. We strongly encourage attendance from colleagues who may be directly affected, as well as those not currently at risk. Your presence and solidarity matter. Members have been emailed a link to join the meetings, if you can’t find the link please get in touch with the branch by emailing ucu@lboro.ac.uk.

    If you have ideas or suggestions for alternative ways to make savings that could help mitigate redundancies, please come along and share them. Your expertise and insight are vital during this consultation period.

    This is a moment where collective action and unity can make a real difference. We hope to see as many of you there as possible.

  • LUCU Weekly Restructure Update Meeting – For All Members

    Following the announcement of proposals on the forthcoming Professional Services restructure, we are inviting all branch members to a series of meetings to provide updates, discuss developments, and gather your views.

    These meetings are an important space for us to come together as a union, to support colleagues who may be directly affected, share information, and collectively explore alternative proposals to reduce costs and protect jobs.

    All meetings will take place online via MS Teams, from 13:00–13:50 on the following dates:

    • Friday 22 May
    • Wednesday 27 May
    • Friday 5 June
    • Wednesday 10 June

    These meetings are open to all members. We strongly encourage attendance from colleagues who may be directly affected, as well as those not currently at risk. Your presence and solidarity matter. Members have been emailed a link to join the meetings, if you can’t find the link please get in touch with the branch by emailing ucu@lboro.ac.uk.

    If you have ideas or suggestions for alternative ways to make savings that could help mitigate redundancies, please come along and share them. Your expertise and insight are vital during this consultation period.

    This is a moment where collective action and unity can make a real difference. We hope to see as many of you there as possible.

  • LUCU Weekly Restructure Update Meeting – For All Members

    Following the announcement of proposals on the forthcoming Professional Services restructure, we are inviting all branch members to a series of meetings to provide updates, discuss developments, and gather your views.

    These meetings are an important space for us to come together as a union, to support colleagues who may be directly affected, share information, and collectively explore alternative proposals to reduce costs and protect jobs.

    All meetings will take place online via MS Teams, from 13:00–13:50 on the following dates:

    • Friday 22 May
    • Wednesday 27 May
    • Friday 5 June
    • Wednesday 10 June

    These meetings are open to all members. We strongly encourage attendance from colleagues who may be directly affected, as well as those not currently at risk. Your presence and solidarity matter. Members have been emailed a link to join the meetings, if you can’t find the link please get in touch with the branch by emailing ucu@lboro.ac.uk.

    If you have ideas or suggestions for alternative ways to make savings that could help mitigate redundancies, please come along and share them. Your expertise and insight are vital during this consultation period.

    This is a moment where collective action and unity can make a real difference. We hope to see as many of you there as possible.

  • A Time for Collective Action and Solidarity

    This week university management will announce their proposals for cuts to Professional Services.  As discussed by the Vice Chancelor last week, the approach taken at some universities is to officially place hundreds of staff at risk of redundancy, creating anxiety and uncertainty for many.  Loughborough is taking a more targeted approach, having made specific decisions about areas where they feel cuts can be made.  As a result, in the next few days, the vast majority of us will be breathing a sigh of relief as we discover that our jobs are not in the firing line.

    It is crucial, and fundamental to the core values of trade unions, that we do not turn away from the situation and leave small number of our colleagues and friends feeling isolated and afraid.  We must remain united – they must be supported by the union.

    In an age where everything from your entertainment to your toilet roll can be a subscription service where a monthly fee is exchanged for a product dropped into your lap, we must remember that a union is not the same thing.  I, as branch Chair, am not the union.  The Loughborough UCU committee is not the union.  Jo Grady is not the union. You are the union.  We are the union.  Netflix didn’t bring us pensions, the weekend or safe workplaces.  Collective union action brought us those things.  A subscription service can’t support our colleagues.  We can.

    It is UCU policy to always oppose redundancies and to seek other options.  This week we will enter a period of at least 30 days’ consultation on the restructure proposals.  This means we have a month to work together to consider and propose alternatives, which management must take seriously.  You are the experts in your areas of work.  If there are ways you think money can be saved that could help protect jobs then share them.

    As well as the branch General Meeting on Wednesday we will be organising regular meetings both in departments and for all members to talk about what’s happening, provide support, and share alternative proposals that we can take to management. 

    We’re all overwhelmed by bad situations we can do little about.  With this situation we can all make a big difference. Let’s stay engaged and work together.

  • Academic Related Professional Services Workplace Conditions Survey

    The academic related, professional services staff (ARPS) committee is undertaking a survey of ARPS members to better understand the experiences of physical issues in your workplaces and the implementation of hybrid working by employers.

    ARPS members are asked to complete this short survey, which will inform discussions at the ARPS annual meeting on 6th March and the work of the committee in the coming year.

  • Professional Services Town Hall

    LUCU requested more opportunities for members to hear first-hand about major strategic developments at the University and to ask questions of SMT. We welcome the introduction of Town Halls as a response to that request. Richard Taylor, Chief Operating Officer led the Professional Services Town Hall designed to enable Professional Services colleagues to learn about how the new University strategy relates to their roles, to hear about other major developments and the context in which the university is operating, and to enable feedback.

    The first Professional Services Town Hall took place on 18 October, and it provided a good opportunity for colleagues to provide input into how the University might improve the experience of colleagues.  Key areas covered were:

    • The LU strategic plan.
    • An update on progress with the Enabling Programme and what it means for Professional Services staff.
    • The HE financial situation and what is planned to meet the challenge.
    • What Loughborough plans to do on Pay, Benefits, Reward and Recognition in response to the Staff Experience Survey.
    • How Professional Services are impacting success exemplified through a recent Archibus project.

    The event concluded with recognition for Professional Services staff and their achievements on specific projects.  If you missed the event, we’ve included the slides and recording here:

    Professional Services Townhall PPT

    Professional Services Townhall recording (please note you will need to login to access the recording)

    We felt the event was really well put together and really useful for staff, especially those that tend not to be as involved in the strategic-level goings-on in the University. We strongly encourage members to attend any future Town Halls to ensure that our union voice is fully considered in decisions about the University’s strategic aims.

  • General Meeting: Professional Services Workload

    You are invited to a branch general meeting on the topic of Professional Services Workload. This meeting is targeted at Professional Services staff and not all of our members will have a direct interest in this topic but all members are welcome should you be interested.

    The meeting will take place on Wednesday 3rd November from 12pm to 1pm.

    The meeting will be held on teams and the link has been sent to you by email.

    LUCU Committee