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News in brief from SUCU Committee.

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/

October Branch News – Pay, Health and Safety, Prevent and more

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October Branch News

October saw a well attended general meeting, details emerge over the 2015 pay claim, a focus on health and safety at work and meetings with university management over Prevent, Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs), USS and more. Earlier this month, and after some debate at national meetings, UCU's Higher Education Committee decided that the 2015 pay offer of 1% will not be contested. While the offer is highly disappointing and fails to make up ground on real-term pay erosion of 15-20% over recent years, it was decided that efforts will instead be put into a campaign building towards the 2016 claim. We hope that a strong, nationally coordinated campaign will take place in the run-up to the negotiations in March. We held a stall on the concourse to mark European Health and Safety Week earlier this month, promoting awareness of workplace stress, bullying and harassment.  Health and safety legislation is important protection for staff. Last year we carried out an inspection of a department where there were serious concerns over staff well-being, and worked with the university to put changes in place to improve the situation. Our well-attended October general meeting saw a number of motions passed. One outlined our position on the government's Prevent agenda, which we see as a threat to freedom of speech amongst other things (read our blog post about this: http://ucu.group.shef.ac.uk/understanding-prevent/). We made a commitment to maintaining local pressure with regards the USS pension fund and a pledge of support to People's March for Climate, Justice and Jobs. We also hosted a guest speaker from the Tamil Solidarity campaign and voted to affiliate to that movement. Minutes of the meeting, including the text of the motions, are online: http://bit.ly/209YH0D Also in the last month, we met with the university to discus capability procedures, pushing in particular for a review of Performance Improvement Plans (PIPs). We have big concerns over the way PIPs are being used, especially with regards staff with disabilities. In a separate meeting, we pressed representatives from HR and Finance to engage with us to develop the university's position with regards USS, and will be writing to the Vice Chancellor on this issue. In addition, in a constructive meeting on the Prevent agenda we were pleased to find the university shared some of our concerns. Finally, you may be interested to read about a recent employment tribunal case which was won by a staff member at the University of Sheffield. Management have agreed to meet us to discuss what can be learned from this case. http://bit.ly/1KqYFWk

Are you hourly paid?

We are hearing that in some departments, staff undertaking regular teaching are still being engaged on a casual basis. A regularisation threshold of £750 or 10 engagements per year should be applied by the University management, set up following pressure from Sheffield UCU. As a result of a University wide review of hourly paid workers, 78 people have been given employment contracts. Please contact us if you are in this situation and have been refused a contract.

Dates for the diary

Tuesday 24 November: Sheffield UCU General Meeting, 1pm, Octagon Council Chambers.

Noteworthy events

Monday 2 November, London: TUC lobby and rally against the trade union bill. https://www.tuc.org.uk/trade-union-bill-get-involved Wednesday 4 November, London: National demo for free education. http://anticuts.com/demo-nov-2015/ Saturday 28 Nov (Sheffield) and 29 Nov (London): People's march for climate change, justice and jobs. https://www.facebook.com/events/1490417151253648/

New look Branch News

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This is our new look Branch News, which we will send monthly rather than weekly. We hope it will give a better summary of what has been happening locally, while still passing on interesting events and reading. For more frequent updates, follow us on Twitter (@sheffielducu). If you have any comments or suggestions, please let us know.

About Sheffield UCU

The Sheffield UCU committee is active both locally and nationally, meeting regularly with university management (alongside representatives from  Unite and UNISON) to negotiate policy development. In the past year this has covered the Reward and Recognition framework, the anti bullying and harassment procedure and a big involvement in pursuing health and safety issues in a department where there were concerns. We also have volunteer caseworkers working closely with staff members who need support. The committee membership is at the bottom of this email.

September Branch News

Sheffield UCU president, Craig Brandist, was invited for a meeting with the Vice Chancellor, Keith Burnett, to discuss concerns over the procedures for setting professorial pay. Members have raised concerns about the way the review takes place and the lack transparency in the system, which leaves it open to favouritism or misuse. The VC listened to our concerns and recognised their validity. We hope this will lead to changes in the system and we will keep the pressure on for them. Also discussed was the Recognition Awards element of The Deal, aspects of which we are not comfortable with, and the proposed Teaching Excellence Framework. While the downgrade of the USS pension scheme was finalised earlier this summer, a campaign to save it from further downgrades in the future (and possibly even to claw back ground) is beginning. We will be meeting with the university at the end of this month to discuss the way the scheme is being administered to try to find some common ground with which to pressure the USS board. Recent investments have performed so well that the USS investment team was given a £4m increase in bonus, while, paradoxically, the board claims the scheme's deficit has grown. Finally, we were very pleased that the the Student's Union and the university subsidiary company Unicus have finally agreed to pay all staff a living wage. This is welcome news, and about time too! http://www.sheffield.ac.uk/staff/news/students-union-unicus-joint-increase-1.507597 email: ucu@sheffield.ac.uk web: http://ucu.group.shef.ac.uk/ twitter: @sheffielducu facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Sheffield-UCU-183109855035943 Please encourage colleagues to join UCU: https://join.ucu.org.uk/

Dates for the Diary

Tuesday 13 October: Sheffield UCU General Meeting, 1pm, Octagon Council Chambers.

Interesting Reading

"Trade union bill not backed by evidence" Open letter to the Guardian, 17 August. http://www.theguardian.com/law/2015/aug/17/trade-union-bill-not-backed-by-evidence "USS bonuses went up £4 million as final salary pension scheme axed", Times Higher Education, 3 September. https://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/uss-bonuses-went-up-four-million-pounds-as-final-salary-pension-scheme-axed

Noteworthy Events

Saturday 3 October: Cuban Futures conference, London. Find out about what’s happening in Cuba and the reality behind the headlines on US-Cuba relations.  http://www.cuba-solidarity.org.uk/news/article/2757/cubas-top-diplomat-for-us-sees-long-road-to-normal-ties Sunday 4 October: TUC demo at the Tory Party Conference, Manchester. Transport from Sheffield available.  http://tinyurl.com/shefpa4oct Monday 19 October: Banner Theatre's "Chicago - The Great Teachers Strike 2012", Sheffield Trades and Labour Club, 200 Duke Street, Sheffield (organised by Sheffield Trade Union Council and supported by this branch).  http://bannertheatre.co.uk/union-gap/ Wednesday 28 October: Black Lives Matter Conference, Nottingham, 9.30am-5pm.  https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/black-lives-matter-the-past-present-future-of-a-movement-for-justice-registration-17541594381 Monday 2 November, London: TUC lobby and rally against the trade union bill.   https://www.tuc.org.uk/trade-union-bill-get-involved

Sheffield UCU Committee

President: Craig Brandist (c.s.brandist@sheffield.ac.uk, Russian and Slavonic Studies) Senior Vice President: Mick Ashman (m.ashman@sheffield.ac.uk, School of Nursing and Midwifery) Vice-President: Jane Simm (j.m.simm@sheffield.ac.uk, Careers Service) Branch Secretary: Sarah Staniland (s.s.staniland@sheffield.ac.uk, Chemistry) Membership Secretary: Rob Stanton (r.stanton@sheffield.ac.uk, CiCS) Treasurer: Pablo Stern (p.stern@sheffield.ac.uk, CiCS) Communications Officer: Sam Marsh (s.j.marsh@sheffield.ac.uk, School of Mathematics and Statistics) Anti-Casualisation Officer: Sam Morecroft (sjmorecroft1@sheffield.ac.uk, Politics) Equalities Officer: Wendy Michallat (w.michallat@sheffield.ac.uk, French) Health and Safety Officer: Mick Ashman (m.ashman@sheffield.ac.uk, School of Nursing and Midwifery) Pensions Officer: Sam Marsh (s.j.marsh@sheffield.ac.uk, School of Mathematics and Statistics) Committee Member: Nikolay Ogryzko (n.ogryzko@sheffield.ac.uk, Medical School)

SUCU Branch News 13th August 2015

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Welcome to new members of Sheffield UCU

Month on month we continue to grow in number, with a 5% increase over the last year across the university.  Every member makes a difference - by adding to the strength of the union in negotiations and influencing the direction it takes.  Please spread the word to colleagues about joining us, and see information here about how you can get more involved.  Free mugs and "build the union" bags have just arrived so if you'd like to collect some from the SUCU office please contact ucu@sheffield.ac.uk.

Events of interest:

Black Lives Matter Conference, Nottingham, October 28, 2015 9.30am-5pm.  More...