1) Emergency General Meeting to discuss the pay dispute, 14th September, 13:00-14:00, LT3, Arts Complex
An Emergency General Meeting has been scheduled on 14th September at 13:00 to discuss our current pay dispute and vote on the motion ‘This branch believes that UCU should reballot members nationally as regards the current pay dispute’ [PDF].
The employers have issued a revised final offer. The revised offer does not constitute an agreement or settlement of the dispute. It is a new position from the employers that will need further consideration from branches and the higher education committee (HEC), which next meets in October. Tracey Hooper and Jamie Melrose will be attending a regional pay consultation meeting on 27 September to feed back views from the branch.
Background to the offer can be found here along with the union’s response here.
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2) Stern review – members’ consultation – ends 30 September
UCU have launched a members’ consultation on the Stern review and has asked for your feedback on three key recommendations.
- Recommendation 1: “All research active staff should be returned in the REF”
- Recommendation 2: Outputs should be submitted at Unit of Assessment level with a set average number per FTE but with flexibility for some faculty members to submit more and others less than the average
- Recommendation 3: “Outputs should not be portable”
The consultation document is available here.
Please can you send any comments to Rob Copeland rcopeland@ucu.org.uk no later than 30 September?
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3) Restructuring in Comms and Marketing
Around 20 colleagues within the Communications and Marketing Division still remain informally at risk of redundancy. Alison Wall, Assistant HR Director, has been tasked with reviewing the old and new job descriptions and will make the decision whether or not to slot the staff to the new roles.
Our thoughts are with the staff who are remaining thoroughly professional during an immensely difficult time for them.
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4) Gender Pay Briefing, Monday 3rd October, 10:00-15:30
The meeting is intended to share UCU gender pay data (some of the best held by UK trade unions), explain how we can tackle the gender pay gap and explore other related gender pay issues.
Please note: UCU has produced a comprehensive briefing Holding down Women’s Pay [PDF] and has a hotline for any gender inequality issues: 0800 983 0344