SUCU Branch News 9 July 2015

Consultative Pay Ballot result

All members should already have received a message from Sally Hunt (UCU General Secretary) about the results of the consultative pay ballot.  You will see that a final decision will not be made until October following four national/regional consultation meetings towards the end of September. We will of course be contacting you ahead of this consultation and you can send your comments at any time to ucu@sheffield.ac.uk.

Implementation of new reward and recognition scheme

We are hearing from members that sessions are now being held across Departments about the new reward and recognition scheme.  These changes are the result of many months of challenging negotiations with University Management by the campus unions .  The negotiations centered around changes to the Local Framework Agreement (the local implementation of the National Framework Agreement reached in 2004) which affects the terms and conditions of employment for Staff on Grades 1-9. Most notably and of national significance the unions have protected the principle that staff can expect annual increments within the normal range, in recognition of their increased experience and skill in the role. Please note – the unions to did not sign up to “the Deal” element or support the new individual rewards scheme that replaced non-consolidated ECAs.

UCU Guidance on the Prevent Strategy

The Prevent duty is the University’s obligation to participate in a governmental policy to  ‘Deal with all forms of terrorism and with non-violent extremism, which can create an atmosphere conducive to terrorism and can popularise views which terrorists then exploit’.  There are many aspects of the Prevent duty which remain unclear. UCU have produced this briefing to help branches.

Five cities, seven years: my life post-PhD

Members may be interested to read this THE blog post from a local member about early careers and job insecurity.  Its also on her personal blog.