January Branch News – NSS boycott, anti-casualisation and more on university finances
Published on
Come to our USS-themed Action Group meeting, Wed 1 Feb, 1-2pm, to plan how to raise the profile of the upcoming valuation.
Save the date! Tuesday 21st February (tbc): Sally Hunt and Jo McNeill have been invited to Sheffield for a General Secretary Hustings.
January Branch News
Students campaign to boycott the NSS, our anti-casualisation drive continues, and we find the university's accounts of its accounts unconvincing.
The National Union of Students has just begun a campaign to boycott the National Student Survey (NSS). This boycott is designed to disrupt the metric-based Teaching Excellent Framework (TEF), which is tied to the raising of student fees. The boycott is supported by UCU nationally and locally, and we have produced a joint statement with our students' union on why this is an important issue. There is guidance from UCU on how individual members can support the boycott and a poster you can display. Our branch advice is to draw students' attentions to the NUS campaign, and that it has the support of UCU, but to stop short of advocating that students take part in the boycott. If you encounter any problems with this approach, contact us.
Our big push to bring the spotlight on the university's casually-employed workforce got significant attention in the run up to Christmas, with local MPs offering their support. We are in the middle of a series of meetings with the university on this issue, and are hopeful we can make some progress. You can follow the status of the negotiations on the website we made for the campaign.
You will have seen our immediate response to last week's post from the Deputy Vice Chancellor on the university's finances. We wrote to Shearer West to express our displeasure with the way the university is writing about its accounts to staff. Given a recent branch motion calling for transparency on such matters, we were particularly upset at the selective reporting and, in some cases, factually incorrect information. We urge staff to look for themselves directly at the key points in the annual report, including the treasurer's statement, to verify that the picture is not as black and white as you may have been led to believe.
Members who were here in 2014-15 will remember the outrage at the downgrading of the USS pension scheme in response to the last statutory valuation. This March it will all happen again and, despite excellent growth in the fund's assets, the methodology which crippled the fund last time points to an even bigger, looming deficit. There are signs, however, that the actuarial profession is waking up to the fact that the modelling seems inadequate, and we hope that USS, the biggest funded defined-benefit scheme in the country, might be bold enough to break with tradition. This university has agreed to form a working group to look closely at the matter; if you have relevant expertise and would like to help, please get in touch.
Finally, you will soon receive a ballot to vote in the election of UCU's new General Secretary for the next 5 years. The University of Liverpool's Jo McNeill will be running against Sally Hunt, who has held the position for the past decade. The Sheffield UCU Committee strongly recommends you use your vote, and endorses Jo McNeill's candidacy. We have invited both Sally and Jo to appear at a hustings in February (Tuesday 21, tbc). We will keep you informed.
Sheffield UCU Committee
USS Action Group, 1 February
We want to raise awareness of the USS pension fund and brainstorm what we can do, locally and nationally, to make headway on this important issue. No knowledge of pensions necessary! Please do come and help if you can.
Action Group, Wed 1 February, 13:00-14:00, Bartolome House Room DLG06
Local/National Events
Education Conference With Angela Rayner MP and Russell Hobby, Sat 4 Feb, 10:00-16:00, Matlock (details)
Sheffield University Students' Union and Sheffield University and College Union believe that students should boycott the National Student Survey (NSS). The NSS will become a key element of the proposed Teaching Excellence Framework according to which teaching will be evaluated according to a set of centrally imposed metrics that threaten to reduce education to narrowly conceived vocational training. The TEF will not only have a negative effect for students and staff, but also contribute to the increasing marketisation of Higher Education. The NSS and TEF also lead universities to provide courses based on fluctuations in fashion and the job market rather than as a result of their intrinsic educational value and resources built up over decades. As a result experienced, professional staff are replaced by precarious teachers on zero-hours or temporary contracts. Boycotting the NSS provides us with a real opportunity to ensure that the TEF cannot be implemented as it makes one of the datasets unusable. Together, Sheffield Students’ Union and Sheffield University and College Union believe that Sheffield is better than this. #ShefBetterThanTEF
Winter Branch News – Finances, insecure employment and more
Published on
Please forward this email to any potential members who might be interested!
Winter Branch News
The university acknowledges that capital spending requires scrutiny and we turn the spotlight on insecure employment.
The Vice Chancellor wrote to all staff last week in an update on the university's financial position. We were pleased to see a notable change in tone and a reassurance that the university is 'reviewing all areas of planned expenditure, including our capital spend', important due to the huge increase in such outlay over recent years. Staffing levels are still the most visible focus of the university's cost-cutting drive, with the Staff Release Scheme now closed for applications and the recruitment pause extended until late January. We will be keeping an eye out for overstretched staff and asking the university to be clear: do we now do less work or work longer hours?
We continue to press for transparency in the Strategy Delivery Group's decision making, and were disappointed that our branch request for a union representative on the group was declined. We hear that the most recent financial forecasting has shown a considerably better position than the £35m deficit for 2016-17 quoted on the SDG's website, but are struggling to get confirmation from the university. January will see the publication of the annual report, which we will be giving full scrutiny, especially figures on capital expenditure and salary increases for top earners.
The pay campaign is officially over, with 57% nationally voting to drop further action. It is a disappointing end, especially given the strong early feeling evident in Sheffield and the weight of evidence in our favour. Our September questionnaire indicated that many members point to tactical errors in the campaign, but it is also clear that universities are prepared to disregard staff anger and impose pay settlements as they see fit. It doesn't seem like a healthy dynamic, and we urge the university to listen properly to the discontent before it becomes even more damaging to staff morale and society as a whole.
One key prong of the pay campaign was an anti-casualisation drive, and today we launch a website exposing the levels of insecurity felt by many staff in Sheffield, based on our questionnaire for insecure staff sent last month. This follows on from the Guardian's excellent series of articles on the shameful practice common in the sector. Some of the testimony featured on our site is heart-breaking, with comments such as 'I absolutely resent the place and what it has done to me' and 'I feel worn-down, undervalued, disappointed, helpless, forgotten, so very tired all the time'. We urge you to spend 5 minutes reading about how an often ignored section of the staff at this university are treated. If you know of anyone in a similar position yet to complete the questionnaire, please point them to it. Negotiations with the university are ongoing, and we have had wider interest, including from local MPs.
In March we will be treated to the triennial valuation of the USS pension fund. There is significant possibility that the valuation, done in the way it was in 2014, will show another large, looming deficit. We will be urging our university to pay much more attention than last time to avoid seeing further increased contributions, downgraded benefits and, potentially, the beginning of the end for the defined benefit scheme. Those sufficiently comfortable with figures are strongly encouraged to engage with the issue, which is not widely understood for the scandal it is due to insufficient scrutiny of the decision-making.
Finally, we'll be a 'plea for help' in the New Year, looking for members who can add to the local union's effectiveness with anything from technical know-how to graphic design skills or event organisation. Those who want to help us make a difference, keep your eyes peeled!
Merry Christmas from the Sheffield UCU Committee
Sheffield Needs a Pay Rise
Sheffield Trade Union Council has brought together various trade unions and community groups representing many workers across the city, to fight for a real living wage for all, of £10 an hour, and for a proper pay rise regardless of age. The campaign is about securing dignity for all, and gives working people a collective voice together that cannot simply be ignored.
There is a demonstration taking place on the Devonshire Green on Saturday 17 December. If you can, please support!
Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/203599183418980/
Senior Management Anti-Marketisation Survey
The National Senior Management Survey is a survey for university staff around the UK to complete about the practices of their senior management team. University staff have their performance measured by narrow metrics - this survey seeks to move the gaze instead to the senior management teams who set the conditions through which staff performance becomes possible. It also provides a counter-point to the National Student Survey, and will lead to a national league table of senior management teams such that regressive and progressive higher education regimes can be made visible. The project is supported by UCU.
https://smsprojectuk.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/national-senior-management-survey
The survey takes 5 minutes to complete, and all answers are anonymous.
What Women Want 2.0
What Women Want 2.0 is a national non-partisan campaign which launched last month. Women across the country are being invited to answer one simple question: What do you want? It's a re-run of a survey from 1996 which sent some powerful messages and influenced government policy.
If you would like to participate, please respond via the web link, http://www.thisiswhatwomenwant.org/
We kick off a local anti-casualisation campaign at our Action Group next week (Wed 2 Nov, 1-2pm, DB12 Bartolome House). Please come and invite any you know who are affected, whether members or not. See more details below.
October Branch News
The university reveals a 'release scheme', we put the nail in the coffin of PIPs and start to focus locally on pay inequality and casualisation.
Last week the university unveiled a Staff Release Scheme, a measure brought in by its Strategy Delivery Group as a response to the university's financial forecasts. We are concerned that members may be under the impression that
the university's actions are a direct result of the EU-referendum (they're not: these concerns predate the vote);
the university can't afford fair pay increases (it can: it's factored into its forecasts an undisclosed, probably sizeable, figure);
the unions negotiated the Staff Release Scheme (we didn't: it was presented to us with no consultation);
the Strategy Delivery Group is doing its best to be transparent (it's not: it reports only to the VC with no publicly available minutes or union representation).
The Staff Release Scheme, a voluntary redundancy scheme in all but name and legal obligations, will see accepted staff leaving with a month's pay for each year they've worked, subject to a minimum of 4 and a maximum of 9. The scheme is open to all staff and is an individual decision. Staff must not feel pressured or coerced by managers or colleagues into applying for release, especially if it is felt that pressure or coercion is on the grounds of age, disability or any other protected characteristic as this is discrimination and, depending on individual cases, illegal. Likewise, while there is no appeal, the University does have obligations to make decisions fairly and we'll be on the lookout for any bad decision-making. Please get in touch with any information or concerns.
You should have received an e-ballot this week from head office titled 'UCU consultation on higher education pay' relating to the current pay dispute. Please vote in this ballot, answering the questions as best you can. If you haven't received this email, contact ebailey@ucu.org.uk, with either your membership number or the email address used by UCU. In the meantime, please continue to work to contract and turn down external examining posts as before as the dispute is still live.
In a piece of good news, we signed off a revision to the university's capability procedures this month which signals the end to Personal Improvement Plans (PIPs), the misuse of which were causing significant amounts of case-work for us and significant distress for some staff. In their place, the university has created ISPs (Improvement Support Plans) which are significantly more than a change in terminology in that they build in much better safeguards (eg. SMART objectives) against the kinds of misuse we complained about. We hope that those currently on a PIP will have their case reviewed and moved to an ISP as soon as possible and no new PIPs should be issued. Please let us know if you are on a PIP and have problems moving to an ISP, or if you are given a new PIP.
We have continued discussions with the university over its recent moves to outsource functions, and received an update on the newly outsourced Occupational Health provision, provided by Health Management Limited. The university has told us that this change has been cost-neutral and has decreased waiting times. We are interested to hear from people who have been referred as to their experiences, as it's clear that no data on this has been looked at by university management. We also have concerns that HML's parent company is Maximus, whose performance with regards the government's fitness-to-work tests has been questionable.
You may be aware of the Student Union's 'Shef better than TEF', which is designed to develop alternatives to the University’s participation in the Teaching Excellence Framework. It is based on the assertion that the TEF will increase the marketisation of HE at Sheffield, is based on flawed measures of excellence, and will adversely affect societal attitudes to education without improving teaching standards. We hope to give the campaign our full support. Staff who would like to be involved are encouraged to contact the campaign directly at campaigns@sheffield.ac.uk and sign the open letter to the VC.
Sheffield UCU Committee
Action Group: local anti-casualisation campaign launch
We are devoting our November Action Group meeting to a planning session on how to campaign locally on over-used casualisation in the university workforce. We will be joined by regional and national representatives for the brainstorming session. This meeting is open to all, and we would like to invite casually employed staff whether members or not, so please forward this message on as appropriate.
We are very pleased to report that Coventry University has been forced to backtrack on plans to use a subsidiary company to employ some teaching staff on agency contracts which would give them worse employment conditions and no union recognition. You can read more about the victory here. Thanks to those who signed the petition.
Unfortunately, the picture elsewhere is less rosy, with London Metropolitan University now subject to a public censure from UCU for their recent actions, with potential for it to become full international academic boycott if the university’s management do not respond in a positive way to the demands of the union. You can read more about the situation here.
Free drop-in financial advice in Sheffield: Mon 14th Nov
Lighthouse Financial Advice, the approved adviser for UCU and other public sector unions are holding free drop-in 30-minute sessions for Sheffield UCU members on Monday 14th November between 10am and 3.30pm. The sessions will take place at the UCU office on Hounsfield Road. For how to book and more information, see here.
Thu 26 January, 1-2pm, Council Room, Firth Court, General Meeting
September Branch News
Published on
Know any people who might be interested in joining UCU? Forward them this email!
September Branch News
The university's finances are under scrutiny as it freezes recruitment, the branch responds to EU-referendum at an Extraordinary General Meeting, and members views are sought on the pay campaign.
The university announced a four-month recruitment freeze in July and launched its Strategy Delivery Group as a response to financial forecasts showing a deficit for the coming year. Announcements seemed to link the situation to the EU referendum, yet the university tells us that its forecasts predate the result. While the immediate focus has been on staffing costs, capital expenditure at the university has reached astonishing levels, with around £0.5bn spent over the past five years and another £0.3bn forecast for the coming four. With similar noises coming from other universities such as Leicester (see below), we ask: have universities lost sight of their finances in an arms race over their estate and facilities? A beautiful campus and top range facilities will not compensate for over-stretched, under valued staff.
This branch held an Extraordinary General Meeting in September to respond to the EU-referendum, discussing the effect on the national landscape, the university and the pay campaign. Four motions were passed. Themes included calls for UCU to campaign on the rights of university staff, particularly those from the EU, and to push for a delay to the HE bill. We also called on the university to improve transparency around its Strategy Delivery Group (SDG) and financial situation, to cease and rethink the recruitment freeze due to the effect it is having on workloads and redeployment opportunities, and, crucially, to honour union representation on the SDG. Read the motions in full.
Our EGM debated a motion regarding a branch response to the pay campaign. In the interest of hearing the broadest possible range of views, we sent a questionnaire to members to gauge the mood. Look for an email 'Opinions needed on the pay campaign' sent on 15 September. The questionnaire will close on Thursday 22 September. Please do complete it to allow us to represent the branch properly at regional briefings happening the following week.
The university has decided to impose the 1.1% pay offer, backdated to 1 August; we believe it is the first in region to do so. It is important to note that the dispute is far from settled, and that this is not an improvement to the figure that members rejected in May. It is particularly concerning as negotiations are a joint process, not a consultation, so agreement must be reached before the annual round is finished. Importantly,
- any further increase to the pay award must also be honoured and backdated by the university;
- hourly-paid staff must contact the university to ensure they get an extra payment for work carried out since 1 August under the old rates (see below).
In positive news, with the new academic year approaching we are pleased to report that our membership continues to grow. Please do recommend joining to colleagues and forward them communications they may find interesting. Also, look out for emails or welcome meetings organised by departmental contacts, and support them where you can.
Sheffield UCU Committee
Hourly paid worker? Make sure you claim any backdated improvement to pay!
With the university imposing the 1.1% pay award as a stop-gap, if you are hourly paid you are unlikely to automatically get back-pay for work carried out from 1 August on the old pay rates and will be due an additional payment. The university has issued the following statement:
"For Casual/hourly paid Employees: As a result of processing timescales, it is likely that payments made for work you have undertaken since 1st August may have been processed in August and September payroll based on the former hourly rates. Please liaise with your line manager and/or departmental finance contacts to check whether adjustments have been made in subsequent payroll submissions."
Please do chase this up and get what you're owed! While you're at it, why not also look at the descriptors at the link below to check you are being paid at an appropriate grade for the work you do.
http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/hr/guidance/contracts/relationships/payrates
University of Leicester and London Metropolitan University: a glimpse of things to come?
The University of Leicester has launched what it calls a process of 'institutional transformation' involving the closure of departments, subject areas and courses, including the Vaughan Centre for Lifelong Learning and the university bookshop. Hundreds of academic, academic-related and support staff are to be made redundant, many of them compulsorily. This is being done under the pretext of forecast financial deficits for the coming year while, at the same time, large amounts are due to be spent on capital expenditure. Some of this sounds worryingly familiar to us, especially the prioritizing of buildings over people.
You can read more about the situation at Leicester, and sign a 'No cuts, no confidence' petition at http://speakout.web.ucu.org.uk/no-cuts-no-confidence-at-university-of-leicester/
The situation at London Metropolitan University is even worse, where the university plans to make around a third of the workforce redundant, and key members of the UCU branch have been targeted in moves that have been described as 'a battle for the soul of higher education' (https://www.theguardian.com/education/2016/aug/05/a-battle-for-the-soul-of-higher-education). UCU members there have just voted in favour of strike action on these issues. The background is long and complex, but you can read more on the London Met UCU webpages (https://uculondonmet.wordpress.com/), and sign a petition in support (https://you.38degrees.org.uk/petitions/no-to-job-cuts-and-trade-union-victimisation-at-london-met).
UCU Black Members
As we start the new academic year, the region is seeking people to join its Black Member group which meets regularly at the UCU Regional office in Leeds. The next meeting takes place in October, as below. If you are interested in attending then you are most welcome!
Saturday 15th October 2016, 10:00-12:00,
Leeds Regional UCU office, 49 St Pauls Street, Leeds, LS1 2TE.
If you require any further information then please do not hesitate to contact Baldeep Thiara at the Regional office (heyorkshire@ucu.org.uk).
Dates for the Diary
Wed 5 October, 1-2pm, Action Group, Octagon Meeting Room 1 (tbc)
Wed 12 October, 1-2pm, Departmental Contacts Meeting, Chancellors Room, Firth Court
Thur 20 October, 1-2pm, General Meeting, Council Room, Firth Court
Sat 19 November, United For Education demonstration, London, joint UCU/NUS event: http://www.nus.org.uk/en/news/united-for-education-nus-and-ucu-announce-national-demonstration/