Category Archives: News

UCU Legal services

Many will be extremely anxious about the proposal to cut up to 100 posts at the University. This is an unprecedented attack on the Surrey workforce and will be resisted by your union collectively.

Understandably, you may believe there is a legal remedy to your post being put at risk. Unfortunately it is highly unlikely there is such a remedy. UK law is clear that if the following criteria are met redundancies are lawful.

(a)     the fact that his employer has ceased or intends to cease

(i)     to carry on the business for the purposes of which the employee was employed by him, or
(ii)     to carry on that business in the place where the employee was so employed, or

(b)     the fact that the requirements of that business

(i)     for employees to carry out work of a particular kind, or
(ii)     for employees to carry out work of a particular kind in the place where the employee was employed by the employer, have ceased or diminished or are expected to cease or diminish.”

The focus is not on whether there is less work, but whether the employer can demonstrate a need for fewer employees to carry out the work.

You will no doubt have more legal questions. For this reason UCU in association with Thompsons Solicitors will be holding a presentation and  Q & A on Wednesday 15th April at noon in Teaching Block 18. This will be followed by a limited number of very brief one to one sessions. If you wish to have a one to one please contact Euclid Pires at [email protected] who will assign you a time slot.

Surrey management threatens 100 redundancies

The Vice Chancellor has launched an Operational Review threatening 100 job losses across the university. The proposals include the restructuring of both academic and administrative departments, with many colleagues forced to compete with each other for jobs in the new structure.

It is important that we support each other and work together to protect our livelihoods and working conditions.  There are a number of things that we can do collectively as a union, in addition to providing support for members at risk of redundancy.

Our branch will need to decide together what action we plan to take in response to these proposals.

Come to our branch meeting on Wednesday 25th March, 12-1pm, 19 AC 03, to discuss and vote on our strategy.

Information about the Operational Review can be found on SurreyNet. The consultation period for the proposals ends on 8th May, but we will need to act much faster than this to make our voices heard.

We are much stronger if we act together. Even if your job is not currently at risk, please get involved now to support your colleagues and protect our university from further cuts. After recent announcements in relation to teaching allocation, it is clear that job losses will mean much higher teaching workloads for staff that remain at Surrey.

In addition to the branch meeting next week, there are also meetings taking place in departments particularly threatened by the proposals. Contact your departmental or faculty representative to get involved.

University heads received an average of £260,000 per year

University heads received an average of £260,000 per year and 18 received pay rises over 10%, according to a salary survey from the UCU lecturers’ union.

The biggest earner in 2013-14 was the head of Nottingham Trent University whose total benefits were £623,000.

Last week, university leaders warned against cutting tuition fees to £6,000, arguing that budgets were under threat.

The UCU leader Sally Hunt said the lack of “accountability surrounding senior pay and perks is a national scandal”.

Business Secretary Vince Cable warned that universities should “think twice” about large pay rises for senior staff and that such pay levels were “hard to swallow”.

The survey from the lecturers’ union shows that the top 10 earners among vice-chancellors received between £392,000 and £623,000, based on total benefits.

It also revealed how some university heads have had substantial increases, at a time when lecturers have been campaigning over pay.

Top 10 vice-chancellors’ pay, 2013-14

1. Nottingham Trent University, Neil Gorman: £623,000 (including accrued bonuses)

2. London Metropolitan University, Malcolm Gillies: £453,000 (including payment in lieu of notice)

3. University of Oxford, Andrew Hamilton: £442,000

4. London Business School, Sir Andrew Likierman: £419,000

5. The Open University, Martin Bean: £412,000

6 University of Birmingham, Sir David Eastwood: £410,000

7. University of Exeter, Sir Steve Smith: £400,000 (including £58,000 performance-related remuneration)

8 University of Bath, Glynis Breakwell: £395,000

9. London School of Economics, Craig Calhoun: £394,000

10. University of Surrey, Sir Christopher Snowden: £392,000

Source: University and College Union

 

More at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/education-31715020

Results of indicative ballot

The UCU Surrey response to the Standard Allocation Framework for Teaching and Academic Staff (STAF) currently being proposed by the University is pretty clear cut . “Go back to the drawing board – this framework will not work!” . Staff are particularly mindful of the impact such a framework will have on our ability to maintain our current high level of teaching standards and student satisfaction.

Here are the results of an indicative ballot on our response to the staff and a series of propositions about what an effective framework might include.

Standard Teaching Allocation Framework – UCU Surrey Ballot

Teaching allocation survey: please give us your views

Following the recent announcement of proposals for teaching allocation, UCU reps would like to get a more accurate measure of the views of our membership in order to communicate these back to management.

Please complete the following survey:

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/F7LBKHT

The survey will remain open until the 26th of January: we have a meeting with HR about teaching allocation on the 27th of January. At a meeting yesterday UCU reps asked for more time to gather views and opinions on this issue.

The link to the original proposals is:  http://www.surrey.ac.uk/surreynet/news/2015/138703_update_on_project_to_look_at_teaching_allocations_across_the_university.htm

 Best regards,

UCU Committee

New Year Update

Surrey Branch UCU committee would like to wish you a happy new year and a huge thank-you for all your work and support during what was a difficult autumn term. Your attendance at meetings, feedback, alerts to issues unfolding and more has been absolutely invaluable! We hope that you had a restful break.

Pensions

As you will know, negotiations around securing a decent pension package are ongoing at national level. The national UCU Higher Education Committee (HEC) will be meeting this Wednesday to discuss the progress in these negotiations. At the moment, action is set to resume on 16th January, which will mean the marking boycott commencing on that date.

We have been working hard to negotiate with management at Surrey about their response to the legitimate industrial action. We remain hopeful that the university will join the majority of other universities in the country in deducting a smaller percentage of pay for participation in action short of a strike.

Last semester, in response to the threat to dock full pay, our branch passed the motion below. The branch voted to call a one week strike, an academic boycott and a vote of no confidence in the Vice Chancellor.

It is important that as many members as possible come to a branch meeting this Thursday 15th January from 1-2pm in (room TBC) order to decide whether we move from this position or not.

We should know by then for sure whether the marking boycott will resume on 16th January, and also whether Surrey still intends to dock 100% pay from members. At this meeting we will need to discuss the national industrial action and our own local situation.

Keep Informed!

If the marking boycott resumes on 16th January, make sure you are aware of what is included in the boycott.

There is a list of FAQs on the national website here: http://defenduss.web.ucu.org.uk/assessment-boycott-faqs/

In recognition of the confusion experienced by members in November we will be compiling a new set of FAQ on our website to deal with the specifics at Surrey. Be sure to keep in touch via our website https://surrey-ucu.org.uk/ in order to best cope with the consequences.

Vision 2020

Since September UCU branch has had numerous meetings with HR in an effort resolve the widespread concerns around Vision 2020 and although we hope to be able to report some movement soon we realize in despair that our efforts are coming too late for many of you. We are painfully aware that many members of staff are suffering the consequences of the use of centralized targets in the context of the capability process and we would like to stress that committee members who are trained in ‘case-work’ are doing all they can to advise and support staff going through this distressing process and encourage those affected to get in touch for advice on their personal cases.

Specific points to be mindful of are instances where failure to reach targets set do not conform to the capability policy requirements of action being based on ‘Adequate evidence that a member of staff is incapable of performing their duties satisfactorily’. Examples of inadequate evidence could include cases where staff are unable to access specific levels of research funding when the research funding available has dropped so steeply, or where MEQs are used.

The capability policy also states that ‘the University will give encouragement and support to a member of staff who is willing to take reasonable steps towards resolving their problems’ and will seek to resolve issues ‘where poor performance proves to be a work-related matter outside the control of the individual’.   Instances where joint bids are held up by partners in other institutions but no allowance is given for this in time frames set under capability might be examples where capability policy is not being properly adhered to. We have recently also seen evidence of a gender imbalance on those in capability and in those being entered for REF which raises questions on the extent to which capability as currently operating is indeed ‘a fair procedure’. Please do contact us if you need any support or guidance.

Teaching workload meetings

We would strongly encourage members to attend the meetings in your faculty about teaching allocation. Please attend, ask questions and raise concerns with your dean, manager, or UCU representative.

Get involved

Our union is only as strong as its members. Please get involved, have your say and shape union action by attending branch meetings and talking to your colleagues in your department.

Please encourage colleagues to attend the meeting this Thursday. You can also print and put up a poster about the pensions dispute in your office or communal areas: http://defenduss.web.ucu.org.uk/files/2011/09/ucu_ussaction_actionposter.pdf

We have vacancies on our committee at the moment – please do contact us to find out more.