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News in brief from SUCU Committee.

March Branch News – REF, TEF and pay

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March Branch News

A dispute is brewing over pay, the sector unites to oppose the government's Green Paper and we keep a close eye on the university's activities. The first negotiating meeting has taken place between UCU and the employers' representatives, UCEA. In response to UCU's claim of 5% on the pay spine and demands for action to reduce the gender pay gap and use of casual contracts, UCEA have started at 1%, with potential for discussions over some of the other points. This discrepancy in starting positions is unlikely to be resolved easily, and may well be heading for a dispute. With the HE sector reducing spending on staff as a proportion of income over the last decade while building cash reserves, splurging on 'the student experience' and rewarding executive management handsomely, it's hard to be sympathetic to claims that 1% on the pay spine and weak action on pay inequality and casualisation is the best they can do. We will keep you posted on developments. At the end of February, Sheffield UCU sent three delegates to the Second Convention for Higher Education in London to discuss the implications of the government's Green Paper. A full report from one of our delegates will appear in an upcoming printed bulletin, to be distributed soon. Among the themes emerging were strong opposition to the Teaching Excellence Framework and plans for the creation by the sector of a 'Gold Paper' to not just oppose the government's plans, but instead outline an alternative vision. As we have mentioned in previous monthly emails, the university's Occupational Health service has been outsourced. We are concerned of the effects that this will have on staff who rely on the service, and would be very grateful to hear from users of this service as to their experiences; please contact us at ucu@shef.ac.uk with any information you have. We are involved in discussions with the university over what we see as creeping privatisation and outsourcing of university functions, and have prepared a list of questions with the hope of determining whether they have the interests of the university and its staff firmly at the heart of their decisions. Discussions are ongoing regarding the university's approach to the Research Excellence Framework. We are already hearing about variations in practice across different departments, and would be very pleased to receive information from members, either by email or through your departmental contact. We want to ensure that staff are treated fairly throughout the REF, and need to hear about cases where members are being put under undue pressure as part of the process. Today is the day the final salary section of the USS pension scheme closes. From tomorrow, contribution rates will go up for all (keep a close eye on your April pay-slip!) and everyone will be moved to an inferior hybrid scheme. Those who were in the final salary section will see pension benefits based not on their future career final salary, but instead on their salary as at today's date (or possibly an RPI-uprated salary from some point in the last 13 years). UCU continue to maintain that the attack on the scheme was based on flawed valuation methodology - assumed pay settlements of 4.5% every year, ongoing played a big part - and are continuing to press for a change to the way the health of the scheme is assessed. Finally, the occupation of the Richard Roberts Auditorium by the Free University of Sheffield group ended, but not before our well-attended March Branch Meeting voted unanimously to sign in support of the group's aims (http://ind.pn/21hknp6).

Voice Care for Educators - Free UCU course at the Octagon Centre

There are places available on this practical and interactive workshop designed to help you find, use, enjoy and maintain your voice. The one-day workshop looks at ways to keep your voice healthy as well as use it to best advantage in a teaching environment. To register, visit http://cpd.web.ucu.org.uk/events/76/voice-care-for-educators-sheffield/ Voice Care for Educators Thursday 21 April, 10am-4pm Octagon Centre, Sheffield Free, but registration needed

Could you be involved in our Action Group?

Following the good practice of Leeds University UCU, we are planning to start up an 'action group', which would meet once a month to brainstorm ideas which could help raise the profile of local and national campaigns. Keep an eye out for details of the first meeting, which we expect to happen in May. More at the April Branch Meeting on this.

Sheffield UCU Annual General Meeting, 8 June, 1pm

Please note the date of our AGM. All members are very welcome and an agenda will follow in due course. Part of the business of the AGM is to elect members to the Sheffield UCU Committee. We welcome expressions of interest in standing for a committee positions. To do so, please get in touch before 10 May at ucu@sheffield.ac.uk. Current committee members would be happy to discuss the roles and what being on the committee would mean. The roles which currently make up the committee are: President, Senior Vice President, Vice President, Branch Secretary, Education Officer, Equalities & Diversity Officer, Health & Safety Officer, Treasurer, Pensions Officer, Membership Secretary, Communications Officer, and Anti-casualisation Officer.

Junior doctors' strike

You are probably aware that the Junior Hospital Doctors are striking for 48 hours from 8am on 6th April, with emergency cover, followed by a full withdrawal of labour on April 26th and 27th from 8am to 5pm. On previous strike days they have picketed outside the Hallamshire Hospital and have welcomed support. The BMA's webpage has more information on the dispute: http://www.bma.org.uk/working-for-change/junior-and-consultant-contract-home.

Dates for the Diary

Tue 19 April, 1-2pm, Departmental Contacts Meeting, Octagon Council Chamber Tue 26 April, 1-2pm, General Meeting, Octagon Council Chamber Wed 8 June, 1-2pm, Annual General Meeting, Octagon Council Chamber

Events

Northern Powerhouse - or Northern Poorhouse? Sheffield march and rally against job losses in the region. Assemble Devonshire Green at 12pm, for march and rally outside City Hall at 1pm. http://bit.ly/231UjBa

Interesting Reading

28 Years of Stock Market Data Shows a Link Between Employee Satisfaction and Long-Term Value, Alex Edmans, Harvard Business Review: https://t.co/Jl7ZQqFd3x Students have a right to know if lecturers are on casual contracts, Sally Hunt, Times Higher Education: http://bit.ly/22P2mEL    

February Branch News – pay, pensions and privatisation

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Reminder: Sheffield UCU general meeting, Wednesday 9 March, 1-2pm, Octagon Council Chamber. Update on the pay campaign and more. All welcome!

February Branch News

As annual pay negotiations near, discussions continue over pensions and we highlight concerns over the creeping commercialisation of core university functions.

This year's pay negotiations begin in March. UCU has tabled its claim, including a 'catch-up' award of 5% to redress recent pay erosion and a demand for action to reduce the gender pay gap and use of casual contracts. Universities know that the facts are on our side, and must realise it's important that they offer a genuine pay rise. Failure to do so is likely to trigger a dispute and a ballot.

Last week was UCU's National Recruitment Week, and we took stalls to the Mappin Building and Jessop West. It was really useful to talk to potential and current members. Our straw poll identified workload and stress as the biggest concern for those we spoke to. Please do spread word of the importance of unions with colleagues who are yet to join.

As part of ongoing national discussions on the USS pension scheme, academic experts were asked to submit opinions on how pension funds should be valued and managed. Sheffield's Craig Berry was one of those involved, and you can read his thoughts here. There is a real danger that, without a change of mindset, USS could be attacked further at next year's valuation. We are continuing to keep this on the agenda in Sheffield.

Finally, we are increasingly concerned over the creeping outsourcing and commercialisation of core university activities. Occupational Health is the latest HR function to be outsourced, following on from staff counselling, and we will be putting questions to the university to establish what processes are followed in such decisions and in whose interests they are being made.

Rate for the Job

If you haven't yet had a try, the Rate for the Job page developed by UCU allows you to find out what salary you would be on if pay had kept up with inflation over the past 6 years. It also allows you to compare your salary with what you might be getting at other institutions, and for you to keep an eye on some eye-watering VC salaries (including that of our own, coming in at over £380k).

Dates for the Diary

  • Thu 3 March, 1-2pm, Departmental Contacts Meeting, Mappin Boardroom, Mappin Building (Note venue!)
  • Wed 9 March, 1-2pm, General Meeting, Octagon Council Chamber
  • Tue 19 April, 1-2pm, Departmental Contacts Meeting, Octagon Council Chamber
  • Tue 26 April, 1-2pm, General Meeting, Octagon Council Chamber
  • Wed 8 June, 1-2pm, Annual General Meeting, Octagon Council Chamber

Interesting Reading

January Branch News – Pay, casualisation and parking

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Reminder: Sheffield UCU general meeting, Wednesday 27 Jan, 1-2pm, Octagon Council Chamber. We host a guest speaker from Leeds UCU to talk about campaigning, and table motions calling for an effective pay campaign and parity between staff and support support services. All welcome!

January Branch News

National campaigns on casualisation and pay are about to begin, while the university takes us for a ride on parking charges.

A new offensive against casualisation is being launched by UCU, with a letter to universities demanding action to tackle heavy use of fixed-term, hourly paid and zero-hours contracts. According to UCU statistics, two-thirds of researchers at UK universities are on fixed-term contracts. Additionally, 75,000 teaching staff are on atypical contracts. In Sheffield, we negotiated the right to be reviewed for a proper contract for anyone reaching a threshold of £750 or 10 teaching engagements per year, with an understanding that regular teachers should normally be on a contract. We are concerned that this agreement is not working out in practice, with only 11% of staff who passed the threshold getting a contract. We are currently pressing the university to do what we believe it promised. Please contact us if you have comments or experience of this, particularly if you are an hourly paid teacher who hasn't been regularised or you are a manager who has experience or comments on the contract process.

In January, the university increased parking fees for staff. We are appalled by the large flat-rate increases and extortionate fines, which don't take account of salary or number of hours worked and act as a pay-cut for staff who have to drive to get to work. We have made our thoughts known strongly to the committee which deals with car-parking, and will continue to do so. You can see the updated fees here: https://www.shef.ac.uk/parkingservices/type. You may also be interested by this guide to fines issued by private companies, such as those running the university's car parks: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/reclaim/private-parking-tickets.

We expect a national campaign to start imminently to demand a proper pay rise in this year's negotiations, starting in March. Recent below-inflation pay offers have resulted in real-terms devaluation of around 15%. This trend cannot be justified by universities, who have built up cash reserves and reduced salaries as a proportion of their budgets, and must not be allowed to continue. With the downgrading of the USS pension scheme also happening in March, it is clear that the goodwill of staff is being exploited. We hope that universities will avoid disputes and recognise the need to offer a fair deal. We will be tabling a motion to press the national leadership for an effective campaign at our January general meeting tomorrow.

A major focus of policy in higher education of recent times, the government's HE Green Paper, demands a robust response by UCU. With this in mind, a convention has been organised at UCL to discuss its implications, and Sheffield UCU is funding up to five delegates to attend the conference. You don't need to be a regular attendee of meetings or consider yourself an activist to represent us, just an interest in this matter and willingness to attend. If you would like a return trip to London on Saturday 27 February, please do contact us. You can read a summary of UCU's current response to the consultation here: http://bit.ly/1nkXowc.

Finally, we have been made aware of a recent update to the university's IT Code of Practice which seems to require staff to be experts on legal frameworks in every country which hosts a service they might use, and additionally prohibits accessing content which is "indecent, offensive, threatening, discriminatory or extremist", without defining those terms. We have raised the matter with the university, as we are concerned about restrictions on academic freedom, and the potential for disciplinary cases. You can read the IT code of practice here: http://www.shef.ac.uk/cics/codeofpractice/core.

Pick Apart a Policy

Can you help us by picking apart a policy? The policy subsection of the HR webpages, http://shef.ac.uk/hr/guidance, contains pages on all sorts of aspects of working at the university (equality and diversity, flexible leave, redeployment procedures, drugs and alcohol, and many more). The committee are involved in discussions over these policies continually, and work hard to try to protect members' interests. We invite you to look at one policy relevant to you, and contact us with anything you find which looks worrying. All help very much appreciated!

Interesting reading

  • "'Biased' students give BME academics lower NSS scores, says study", Times Higher: bit.ly/1JZmXNO
  • UCU's Academic-Related Professional Staff newsletter, including an article "How ready is HE to embrace the future?": http://bit.ly/1KBAExs

Dates for the diary

  • Wed 27 January, 1-2pm, General Meeting, Octagon Council Chamber
  • Mon 22 - Fri 26 February, UCU National Recruitment Week. Look out for the Sheffield UCU stall!
  • Sat 27 February, HE Green Paper Convention, 10am-5pm, UCL: https://heconvention2.wordpress.com/paper-and-convention/
  • Thu 3 March, 1-2pm, Departmental Contacts Meeting, Mappin Boardroom, Mappin Building Note venue
  • Wed 9 March, 1-2pm, General Meeting, Octagon Council Chamber

Upcoming events

December Branch News – Equality and diversity, pensions and a top 100 place to work?

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Reminder: our Branch News now goes out once per month. Follow us at http://twitter.com/sheffielducu for more frequent updates. Please forward this message to non-members who may be interested!

December Branch News

A busy year, in which branch membership grew and we defended the right to automatic pay increments, ended with a focus on equality and diversity issues, Sheffield taking an interest in the national discussion on pensions, and a place in the top 100 places to work.

Our final general meeting of the year was held at the end of November. Discussion was lively, and concerns voiced about the university's approach to core functions: occupational health is about to join staff counseling in being outsourced, while Juice has been spun-off as a private company and our Director of HR seemed keen on commercialising further functions in his recent interview (http://bit.ly/1PXeTxf). Are priorities straight here, we wonder, and in whose interests are these decisions being made? We also welcomed a talk by the new president of Sheffield Students' Union, Christy McMorrow, who gave an update on their campaigns.

Our equality and diversity officer attended the national UCU Equality and Diversity Conference in November. Motions were passed to do more to ensure support for members suffering domestic violence, and also to prioritise diverse representation in every level of the union, among other things. We will be looking more closely at what we can do locally on these matters early next year.

In response to our letter to the Vice Chancellor (http://bit.ly/1NNlB4v), the university is taking an interest in the national discussions on pensions currently taking place between UCU and Universities UK (the employers' umbrella body). UCU maintains that the current method of valuing the USS pensions scheme is thoroughly misleading and in urgent need of a review; failure to do so is likely to lead to a further attack on pension benefits in 2017.

Finally, you probably saw that the University of Sheffield made the top 100 places to work in the Sunday Times' list (http://bit.ly/1Oxozk2). This may be a surprise to some - workload, stress, casual contracts and harassment issues are very much on our radar - but with the university keen to pat itself on its back, we wonder: is this success really to be claimed by the HR department, or is it perhaps testament to the strength of the campus unions (http://bit.ly/1Ospo7m)?

Happy new year from the Sheffield UCU committee!

HE Green Paper Convention - are you interested?

The branch committee has decided to fund up to 5 Sheffield UCU members to attend a discussion event on the government's green paper for higher education in London in February (details below). If you are interested in attending, please reply to this email. We would very much like to have a strong Sheffield presence.

HE Green Paper Convention: The Threat to the Public University Saturday 27 February, 10am-5pm Christopher Ingold Chemistry Building, UCL https://heconvention2.wordpress.com/paper-and-convention/

Dates for the diary

  • Thursday 21 January: Sheffield UCU meeting for departmental contacts, 1pm, Octagon Council Chambers.
  • Wednesday 27 January: Sheffield UCU General Meeting, 1pm, Octagon Council Chambers. Guest speaker on pay and campaigning from Leeds UCU.

Interesting reading

November Branch News-Green Paper, Pay,Redeployment and more

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Reminder: our Branch News now goes out once per month. Follow us at http://twitter.com/sheffielducu for more frequent updates. Please forward this message to any non-members who may be interested!

November Branch News

In a busy month, the government published its Green Paper on HE, a campaign started over the 2016 pay claim and amount spent on Sheffield's high-earners was uncovered. Earlier this month, UCU responded to the government's Green Paper with concerns over the negative impacts of a metric-driven framework for assessing teaching quality, pointing at manageable workloads, good working conditions and job security as essential for the provision of excellent teaching (see http://bit.ly/1MA6n4V). In Sheffield, our VC has made a number of blog posts about the proposed Teaching Excellence Framework, and we are broadly supportive of his comments. A campaign is beginning for a fair pay settlement in 2016, with Leeds UCU publishing a collection of blog posts on the subject (http://bit.ly/1ShRvtR). Additionally, a Freedom of Information investigation by a national newspaper revealed that 96 members of staff earn over £100k in Sheffield, with 11 earning over £200k, and two over £300k. We calculate that the £12.8m going to these top earners could pay the salaries of 336 new lecturers (http://bit.ly/1YrMB14). In line with the motion passed at the October General Meeting, we wrote to the Vice Chancellor regarding the valuation of the USS pension fund, requesting a working group be established to look at the details (see http://bit.ly/1NNlB4v). We were also pleased to learn that Jane Hutton of Warwick University, a strong critic of the actions of USS last year (see http://bit.ly/1P6gz93 and http://bit.ly/1LxAA0F), has been appointed to the USS board of trustees as one of the three UCU-nominated directors. Locally, we are focusing some attention on the redeployment procedure for staff whose contracts come to an end; at the moment, those on the redeployment list have priority over newly advertised jobs for just 48 hours, which we want to see extended significantly in order for people to be able to prepare proper applications. Relatedly, we were pleased to learn that the rights of staff covered by the University's Statutes, which we helped shape, are being used as an exemplar to other institutions in the region. Finally, you may be interested by an interview with the University's Director of Human Resources in HR Magazine. Fortunately, there was no repeat of the claim that those who weren't excelling would be asked to leave (http://bit.ly/21eifBs). There was, however, talk of commercialising further HR functions at the University. You can read and comment on the article here: http://bit.ly/1PXeTxf

Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs)

Do you have experience of being on a Performance Improvement Plan? Do you know someone who has? We are looking for experiences of staff, both positive and negative, to help our discussions with management. We have big concerns over how they are sometimes being used, with some people being set up to fail. Any information (what was it for? was it appropriate? was your case well handled? did it help? were HR involved?) gratefully received at ucu@sheffield.ac.uk.

Support the Open University!

Open University staff are striking over the threat of the closure of regional centres in Birmingham, Bristol, Cambridge, Gateshead, Leeds, London and Oxford. Around 500 jobs are at risk. Sign the petition at http://bit.ly/1Lr5eOe; more details available at http://www.ucu.org.uk/7852, and messages of support for the Leeds strikers can be sent to elvira.haeussler@open.ac.uk.

HE Green Paper: can you help?

We have an active committee in Sheffield, but we're so busy that some things don't get the attention they deserve. Anyone following closely the discussion around the Green Paper and TEF would make an excellent contribution to local discussion. If you are interested representing Sheffield UCU on such matters, please do get in touch (ucu@sheffield.ac.uk).

Dates for the diary

Thursday 21 January: Sheffield UCU meeting for departmental contacts, 1pm, Octagon Council Chambers. Wednesday 27 January: Sheffield UCU General Meeting, 1pm, Octagon Council Chambers.

Noteworthy events

Wednesday 25 Nov, 5pm: Protest against the spending review, 5pm, Town Hall. Sheffield UCU's Sam Morecroft is one of the speakers. http://bit.ly/1Os0BTQ Saturday 28 Nov (Sheffield) and 29 Nov (London): People's march for climate, justice and jobs. https://www.facebook.com/events/1490417151253648/