The recognised trade union for academic and related staff

The recognised trade union for academic and related staff

This week’s update

(14th Sep 2023) The email from the Director of HR to all staff (13th September) indicated that within our negotiation meeting we “were not able to reach an agreement”. We would like to clarify that our delegation approached the meeting with management openly and optimistically. Whilst the position from the branch is clear, we were willing to negotiate seriously to find an offer that the branch may deem sufficient to call off strike action during one of the busiest times of the year. Management offered nothing.

In previous sector wide disputes, management have held the public position that they do not wish to negotiate locally as it would not have the power to directly resolve the entire dispute. That is simply not true in this case. There is still time for management to engage and find a resolution that works for both parties. We have again today written to the VC to reiterate that. We understand that representatives of the Students’ Union have also met with management and asked them to engage with the branch to avoid the upcoming strike action and major disruption it will cause to students by returning MAB deductions.

Requesting the return of MAB deductions is not an unreasonable position, with the University of Sussex recently agreeing to return these in return for marking being completed by a reasonable date. Similar local agreements have been made at several other universities, including King’s College London and LSE. Members might also remember the previous year’s MAB in which our own management agreed not to make deductions in response to marks being returned. We notified management on the 13th of July of our intention to escalate, giving them plenty of time to reconsider their position on deductions and avoid disruption.

In addition to writing to the VC and Director of Human Resources to ask them to return to negotiations, Members in the Faculty of Social Sciences have drafted an open letter which University of Sheffield staff and students can sign to show their support. We understand that this letter will be shared with management ahead of the upcoming action to ask them to please rethink their position.

Since management have the power to negotiate an end to this local dispute at any point, it is crucial that members show up in force next week. We note that deductions for August are not currently scheduled to be taken until this month’s payroll is run, so there is still time for management to cancel these deductions. We also encourage members to keep an eye out for emails from us with any updates.

Read more Weekly Updates...

Our blog

Long Covid and Employment: overcoming challenges

Sheffield UCU member Tim Herrick (Senior University Teacher, School of Education) recently attended a seminar organised by Leeds Occupational Health Advisory Service, entitled “Long Covid and Employment: overcoming challenges“. His report is below. In the seminar we heard from a range of speakers, focusing on people living with Long Covid and medical professionals involved in […]

Read more...

Motion on solidarity with Palestine and academic freedom

The following motion was passed by Sheffield UCU at the general meeting held on 16/11/2023. Motion to End the Violence in Palestine, Support Palestinian Rights, Protect Academic Freedom and Freedom of Expression and Oppose all Racism Sheffield UCU notes: The recent upsurge in appalling violence in Israel-Palestine has claimed around 1400 Israeli lives and over […]

Read more...

Sheffield UCU correspondence with Ian Wright, September 2023

The below is a summary of the correspondence related to negotiations and the resolution of the dispute between Sheffield UCU and representatives of management including the Director of HR, Ian Wright, the Vice-Chancellor, Koen Lamberts, and members of UEB between 14/09/23 to 25/09/23.   From: Sheffield UCU Date: Monday, 25 Sept 2023 Subject: Re: Resolving […]

Read more...

Read more Blog Entries...

Our campaigns

About us

Sheffield University and College Union is the only body recognised by the University to represent, and negotiate on behalf of academic, academic-related and research staff. The SUCU Committee consists of volunteer members of staff whose work (on the membership’s behalf) includes: negotiating terms and conditions with the University, advising and assisting members regarding work related issues, campaigning, and providing information on issues relevant to trades unions.

Join us now

Upcoming events

There are currently no upcoming events registered. Go to the events page to view our past events.