Loughborough UCU

Tag: strike

  • Industrial Action Bulletin (ASOS) Action Short of a Strike

    We are writing to clarify further how ASOS is intended to work during this initial phase of industrial action following new information from UCU as well as further negotiations with local management.

    The HEC has opted for escalating ASOS.  In the first instance, we are being asked to work to contract: this means that staff carry out the key functions of their roles but do not undertake voluntary duties, and staff should limit their working hours to a reasonable number which, according to the Framework Agreement, for staff in pre-92 universities, the union considers to be a nominal 37 hours per week.

    Escalating ASOS is part of UCU’s ‘Reclaim Your Time’ strategy, that is especially relevant in the post-92 sector where contracts mandate more clearly set working hours. Even so, across the sector, it will prepare the ground for an escalation of ASOS when the HEC meets on December 8, 2021.  Members are being asked to push back against unreasonable workload demands by management.  Reports of excessive workload will be collated by UCU to demonstrate how much free work staff are expected to perform and for falling wages. UCU is cognizant of the fact that this may create workload for members as well as managers, but demonstrating the amount of overwork in the system that staff must perform in what should be their personal time is a vital part of the Four Fights campaign and the campaign to protect staff wellbeing.

    Responding to a request to reschedule work

    We have been reassured by management that they respect our right to take industrial action, and they agree that asking staff to do work for which they were not paid would not be consistent with the VC’s commitment to “maintaining collegiality and respect for each other” in the context of industrial action – a commitment shared by LUCU.  Therefore, members should not routinely expect to receive requests to replace work lost to strike days.  

    However, the University may request that assessments submitted on a strike day be marked. The current terms of ASOS allow them to make this request. Management have agreed with LUCU that this should happen only if the staff member believes this will not materially add to their workload. If the colleague believes the work related to assessment cannot be accommodated in their current workload, they should report this to their Dean, who will be prepared to adjust their workload to facilitate this. The adjustment to the colleague’s workload should be meaningful. This is consistent with UCU’s current guidance for ASOS whereby members can ask what work they “should not do to so as to compensate you for time spent on replacement activities”.

    If you receive a request related to work impacted by the strike action, you may use this template (see here for the template and here for the national guidance) to demonstrate to your manager: how much time the task you are being asked to do will take you to complete and report how many hours above 37 (the notional working week according to the Framework Agreement) you would need to work if you were to undertake the task without compensation.  Please copy LUCU into the correspondence with your manager when negotiating on workload.  If you would like additional support in addressing how workload will be managed in relation to such requests, please contact UCU@lboro.ac.uk.

    LUCU Committee

  • LUCU News December 2021

    USS: Response to Vice-Chancellor’s email

    We have reported on our ongoing work with management related to workload, EDI and casualisation in previous newsletters, so we concentrate here on USS.

    We welcome the University’s continuing willingness to discuss these issues with the branch. This has led to a several important developments. Firstly, we are pleased that the University continues to recognise that the current USS valuation is excessively prudent and that, as a result, the cuts to our pensions we are being asked to accept are unnecessary. Secondly, we are also pleased that the University has called for a new evidence-based, moderately prudent valuation to supersede the existing flawed valuation.

    Making such a call was one of the two demands that UCU made of employers in the current dispute. Finally, we very much welcome the University’s acceptance that UUK should provide the same level of covenant support to all proposals considered at the Joint Negotiating Committee (JNC). UUK’s refusal to do this in August, with the consequence that UCU’s proposals could not be considered, is a direct cause of the industrial action scheduled.

    However, we are disappointed that the University is not willing to call for the current UUK proposals to be withdrawn, the second of the two demands in UCU’s dispute letter. The rationale given by the Vice Chancellor – this would mean that we would be on a path to crippling contribution increases – is unjustified for at least two reasons. The first is that it ignores the fact that employers’ actions put staff on a path to crippling pension cuts. Essentially the Vice Chancellor’s argument is that the costs associated with the flawed 2020 valuation are so crippling that the University cannot risk being exposed to a share of them, so staff must be exposed to almost 100% of these costs instead. This is simply not fair. The second reason is (as explained here) withdrawing the UUK proposals would not involve significant contribution rises until October 2022. This would create enough space to find a negotiated settlement without the need for industrial action. Such a settlement would prevent the unaffordable increases scheduled for that date.

    To be clear, the forthcoming industrial action would not be necessary if employers were willing to (i) call for a new evidence-based, moderately prudent valuation, and (ii) withdraw the current UUK proposals, and (iii) enter into good faith negotiations to find a fairer solution. We are very pleased that the University accepts (i) and (iii), but we are disappointed that it has chosen industrial action over calling for the withdrawal of the UUK proposals.

    EGM Report: USS/Four Fights/Industrial Action

    At the UCU delegates’ meeting on 12 November, the Branch representatives voted in line with the views expressed by Loughborough members at the EGM two days earlier: that is, in support of re-balloting universities that did not reach the 50% threshold, with industrial action to begin in the New Year.

    The NEC met the following week and indeed decided to re-ballot those universities, but also to initiate strike action before the Christmas break. Therefore, failing a last-minute breakthrough in negotiations, we will be on strike on December 1-3 inclusive. We encourage you to let students know in advance if you will be taking part in strike action so as to maintain good relations and to avoid causing them undue inconvenience.

    We are grateful to senior management for agreeing to delay pay deductions for December strike action until February, and for agreeing to maintain pension contributions during the action.

    Pickets

    There will be in-person pickets on campus each day. We will meet at the main University entrance at 8:00 am and picket until approximately 11 o’clock. There will be a BBQ on Friday.

    BBQ on the Picket Line

    To keep members safe, hand sanitiser will be provided as required on picket lines, social distancing will be observed, a list of participants for contact tracing purposes will be kept, and members intending to join the picket are asked to take a lateral flow test before participating.

    Members who do not wish to use public transport to attend a picket might consider offering or taking part in virtual forms of action, such as organising a teach-in or using social media to distribute fliers and messages.

    If you can support the action by joining a picket, offering a virtual event, or helping to advertise the action, please contact Marc Gibson. 

    Out of Office Message

    Below is a suggested out-of-office message for you to use during the period of industrial action. Of course, please feel free to adapt as you see fit:

    I am currently unavailable as I am taking part in the University and College Union’s (UCU) strike action to defend our right to a fair pension. Please redirect your query to the University management, asking them to use their leverage to help secure a return to negotiations.

    Solidarity with Leicester UCU

    Some of our members will be supporting Leicester colleagues to GTVO in their re-ballot on USS. If you can’t travel to join the Loughborough picket line, but live in Leicester, please consider visiting their picket lines: they propose an 8:30 am start, with each day ending with a rally and march at 11am.

    Branch News

    LUCU Health and Safety officers undertook a programme of health and safety inspections in one School (as per Regulation 5 of the 1977 Safety Representatives and Safety Committee Regulations), following multiple reports from members in three subject areas who reported excessive workloads and work-related stressors that were having a detrimental impact on their physical and mental wellbeing.

    The inspection took place between 26 October and 19 November. Four meetings chaired by a LUCU H&S officer enabled participants (both members and non-members in the School) to feed back on their work experience in terms of Demands (workload, work patterns and environment); Control (how much say they have over how they work); Support (resources provided both centrally by the University and by line management); and Change (how changes are managed and communicated). This was followed up by a survey. In total, we captured feedback from 66 staff.

    The data collected revealed significant stress hazards, and a discursive analysis of responses, along with the survey results, was submitted to HR, with a request that management urgently develop an action plan to address the problems (with deadlines for reaching interim targets, as well as long term improvements). We are pleased to report that the University recognizes the validity of concerns about staff wellbeing in the School, and a meeting is scheduled between HR and the School’s SMT to start formulating an action plan. We will continue to monitor the situation through our reps, as well as through consultation with management about progress on the action plan.

    New Reps

    We would like to welcome two new reps. Saul Albert, who lectures on social psychology in Social Sciences and Humanities, is our new rep in Communications and Media. Tony Sutton, who is a University Teacher in Wolfson, will now be representing members in Mechanical Engineering. Saul succeeds Dominic Wring, while Tony is taking over from Kaddour Bouazza-Marouf. The Branch Committee would like to thank Dom and Kaddour for their many years of excellent service to members in their areas.

    LUCU reps serve as essential ‘on the ground’ points of contact for members. If you might be interested in serving as a rep for your area and would like to know more about what the role entails, we encourage you to talk to our Membership Secretary Marie Hanlon. 

    LUCU Committee

  • LUCU Memo to Students

    We suggest that colleagues send a message to students in advance of the industrial action to maintain the best possible relations at what can be a stressful time for everyone involved.  The branch has created the following message to make this easier: please amend as you see fit for your student groups.

    Begins
    Subject: UCU Industrial Action – Beginning December 1, 2021  

    Dear <usual form of address>,  

    Many of you will know by now that the University and College Union (UCU), the trade union representing academic and academic related staff, has announced a first wave of industrial action over cuts to staff pensions, excessive workloads, job insecurity, and pay levels that have not kept up with inflation. This will impact universities across the sector including Loughborough.  

    I regret that, unless the strike is cancelled (which, up to the last minute, is not impossible), strike action is likely to impact on your modules that are scheduled to occur between 1st and 3rd December. This means that teaching will be cancelled, and tutors will not be holding tutorials/office hours, nor answering emails.  

    I will confirm nearer the time whether the module will be affected by industrial action.   If you would like to know more about why your lecturers are taking this action, you can access further information via our local Loughborough UCU YouTube channel.  

    Kind regards
    <your name>
    Ends
    Template Memo to Students

  • LUCU Statement regarding the Strike

    We are writing about the email sent by the Vice Chancellor on Wednesday 13 November regarding the strike.

    The VC is quite right that he engaged with staff, and that he has made a public call for limiting employee contributions to 9.1%. Most Vice Chancellors have not done this and we appreciate the VC has made himself unpopular with some of them. Further, we acknowledge the frustration for our VC that some of the universities where the ballot turnout did not exceed the 50% threshold have less proactive, less sympathetic Vice Chancellors. Moreover we take his expressed concerns about the financial implications of increased contributions by the university seriously and in good faith.

    However UCU’s position is that no one, not employees and not employers, need have their contributions increased. Rather at the root of the dispute is the valuation method. The debate is not “who should fund the increases” but whether or not increases are necessary.

    The resolution to the 2018 strikes came from the establishment of a UUK/UCU Joint Expert Panel, which was tasked with reviewing the valuation method and proposing a way forward. If the methodology recommended by the Joint Expert Panel in their first report had been implemented, then neither employer nor employee contributions would be going up.

    A couple of other points. The VC’s email mentioned that “employees currently contribute 9.6% of salary” but we highlight that this is only true since 1st October 2019. It was 8% before last year’s strike, then went to 8.8% and now has gone up to 9.6%. The email also noted that the USS Trustee includes UCU representatives but two clarifications are in order. First, UCU has nominees not representatives: these nominees are legally independent of UCU, and their actions are not controlled by UCU. Second, in recent weeks one of the UCU nominees, Professor Jane Hutton, was dismissed by USS after raising concerns about their valuation method.

    Finally, we note that our VC is in engaging in meaningful discussion with LUCU committee and is making constructive proposals about how we might resolve the situation. We are grateful to have such a proactive and sympathetic Vice Chancellor at Loughborough who engages meaningfully with the branch and we do not take this for granted. We will be in touch again to canvas members’ views on the options as we see them.

    LUCU Committee

  • LUCU Committee Advice to Striking Members

    The branch think it important that staff who are considering strike action understand what is legally required and understand the guidance being issued in relation to both the proposed strike action between Nov 25th and Dec 4th and action short of a strike that will continue thereafter.

    We believe some managers are making suggestions which are not in keeping with current guidance.

    You are not required to give of strike action to management, or to students – although when asked afterwards if you did take strike action, you are required to provide this information.

    It is recommended that colleagues give notice on the morning of the strike that they will be absent, as they would if they were going to be absent due to sickness. This is the case whether it involves lectures, seminars, or project supervision. This gives managers the same time frame to notify students of changes. Even though, again, there is no need to do so.

    The branch is concerned that some of recommendations from some managers are asking to ensure the ‘smooth running of the programmes’ after December 4th is a request to ignore the action short of strike, thus to act to minimise disruption lessens and undermines the impact of the strike itself.

    For more information please see the FAQ’s on UCU’s website.

    LUCU Committee