Dear Lancaster UCU members,
The last several weeks have raised major questions concerning the future of our university, with recent communications from the Vice Chancellor suggesting that an estimated 400 FTE jobs are at risk. You need your union and your union needs you, so please bear with us for a long members’ update and information on how you can get involved in the new year.
General Meeting
Given recent developments, the branch will hold a General Meeting on Tuesday 17th December. 12–1.30pm. We regret both the short notice and timing, but think it is important for members to meet and discuss our challenges before the Christmas break and without adding to the stress of Week 10. Please join us to discuss the vital issues facing us. Forthcoming agenda to be circulated.
Members Survey
The branch wants to thank all members who participated in the recent survey. The results (see attached) suggest a clear list of concerns and priorities for the branch, with workload, stress, redundancies, and restructures leading the way as members’ top priorities. Members also expressed willingness to volunteer and participate in working groups which the branch aims to launch in the new year.
Working Groups
Your union needs you. LU has the lowest facility time (FTE buyouts for union officer roles) per member among all our regional peers (see also: Partnership Agreement below). This means that branch leadership often struggles just to keep up with the administrative load of working with university management. Given the challenges facing our university it is vital that we organise, focus, and share the work of campaigning. We therefore propose the formation of several vital working groups for the new year, including working groups for Partnership Agreement, Policy, Redundancies, Workload Allocation, and Stress and Safety. This is not an exhaustive list, but represents the most pressing concerns as identified by LUCU members. Please read more below on these specific issues, and get in touch with the branch at ucu@lancaster.ac.uk if you are interested in volunteering. More hands make for lighter loads!
Redundancies and Redundancy Committee
Foremost on many members’ minds will be the recent announcement that the university will be seeking to reduce its workforce by 10-15%, amounting to roughly 400 FTE positions across academic and professional services staff. The branch will work hard to oppose any redundancies and work toward creating maximum transparency in the event of compulsory redundancies. University management has been working for the past year to disestablish the current redundancy committee that helps produce oversight over the redundancy process. When this process began the university assured branch leaders that “we have no plans for redundancies at this time,” however times have clearly changed and the branch will continue to oppose the disestablishment of the redundancy committee, and work toward creating maximum transparency and oversight.
Working together with our regional officers, we have recently managed to push PoE to include email addresses of any staff member who is put at risk of redundancy. Although this may seem a small win, access to this information is vital for collective action. From now on our branch will be able to get in touch with affected members to offer support and coordinate collective action, if and when is necessary.
Promotions and Sabbatical Freeze
UCU expresses deep disappointment with the recent move toward and handling of freezes on promotions and sabbaticals. In the first instance the promotion freeze was announced mere days before one key application deadline, meaning that many members will have spent days and weeks carefully preparing promotion packages, only to learn at the last minute that their time and effort has been wasted. UCU notes that communication of this policy was not only severely delayed but also buried in a single sentence in the fifth paragraph of a lengthy communication. UCU also notes the uneven impact this policy will have on colleagues who are demographically over-represented in lower paygrades, and the adverse EDI outcomes that will surely be associated with it.
UCU notes the adverse impact that sabbatical freeze is likely to have on the university’s research profile. We also note that in the previous case of sabbatical freeze (Covid 2020) policy was negotiated in partnership with Trade Unions, whereas in this instance Trade Unions were notified only after the decision had been made.
Partnership Agreement and Policy Forum
Some members might be aware that in __[when?]__ the Partnership Agreement that formalises negotiations between the university and its three Trade Unions expired and has not yet been renegotiated. We are in the beginning phases of renegotiating the Partnership Agreement, and we are pushing for more facility time for UCU branch officers, which currently amounts only to 0.6 FTEs, putting Lancaster University at the bottom of the rankings of our regional peer institutions. More facility time would allow for the creation of more specialised roles within the branch,
Recently the University has proposed the creation of monthly Policy Forum which would bring together management and the three Trade Unions (UCU, UNITE, UNISON) for the dedicated purpose of discussing and negotiating policy, an activity that is currently consigned to monthly Communication and Consultation Meetings (CCM) which are often unable to accommodate fulsome and in-depth policy discussions. UCU and its sister unions welcome the development of a policy forum in principle, however with our current resources and facility time, and given the demands of current organisational changes, UCU feels it is impossible to meaningfully participate in this process. Without the resources/facility time to meaningfully negotiate policy, UCU feels that participation in the Policy Forum risks tacitly supporting/approving policy that UCU has not in reality been able to meaningfully impact. UCU is especially concerned that the university plans to carry forth the Policy Forum without UCU participation, drawing into question the soundness and legitimacy of policy negotiated outside the formal channels of CCM and the Joint Negotiation & Consultation Committee (JNCC).
The branch position is that these are interconnected issues. We believe that more facility time could allow for the creation of a specialised role concerning, for example, policy negotiation that would allow UCU to meaningfully contribute to and improve the formation of policy. We hope that the university understands the productive role that UCU colleagues can play in the formation, negotiation and improvement of policy. Recent improvements to the Overseas Working Policy (see below) suggest the value of a collaborative approach to policy making.
FASS Restructure Consultation
Consultations for the FASS restructure are ongoing. For members in FASS, you will have received an email detailing new documents that have been made available pertaining various aspects of the restructure. While we encourage members to read and scrutinise these documents, we continue to express concern that crucial documents pertaining to the restructure are emerging so late in the consultation period.
Voluntary Severance Scheme (VSS)
We have had a number of inquiries from members concerning the VSS scheme. While the branch cannot advise whether or not expressing interest in VS is right for our members, there a several things to consider in making a decision:
- UCU cannot advise on the likely scale of potential future redundancies, nor where any redundancies may occur. This will depend on the outcome of the VS stage. We can assure members that we will be pushing for commitments on no compulsory redundancies, etc., and will engage and consult with members throughout.
- Our regional office advises members that VS is likely to be more generous than subsequent voluntary or compulsory redundancy. We will push for better terms at the next stage, but we cannot guarantee the employer will offer such terms outside of the VS stage. The only way to guarantee the terms being offered now, is to apply for VS.
- An expression of interest in VS is not a guarantee of being offered VS, but nor is it a commitment to accept an offer of VS. There is nothing to lose by expressing an interest in the VS scheme
As a UCU member you have access to the UCU solicitors (Thompsons) who would provide the necessary legal advice and certification to any Settlement Agreement that you might receive. The process would be:
You receive the Settlement Agreement from the employer which would require signing by yourself and a solicitor. Once received, you would forward this through to the UCU Regional Office (henorthwest@ucu.org.uk) who would then confirm receipt and regional office will then ask you to complete and return the attached paperwork. Once you have sent through the completed attached paperwork, your Settlement Agreement along with the completed attached paperwork would be sent by Regional Office to the UCU Solicitors (Thompsons).
Thompsons would then get in touch with you directly to take you through the agreement which you intend to sign to ensure you understand the financial and other terms of what you are signing (= the ‘legal advice’). They would then certify the agreement and this would be returned to the employer – signed by yourself, the employer and your UCU solicitor.
UCU is currently pressing the employer to increase their legal contribution from £350 +vat to £400 +vat as the latter is the standard fee for Thompsons for doing settlement agreements.
Lancaster UCU 