MOre up to dat info.

UCU at UAL CoCom update

Dear UCU members

£8 million expenditure savings are planned for the next financial year 2011/12.

Efficiency plans at UAL are now on the intranet (except CSM).
Do not fall into the trap of accepting these plans as a fait accompli!
These plans remain proposals until Collective Consultation ends.
The union needs your support to challenge proposals that will have the following affects:

• Foundation Course Staff facing the closure or re-structuring of FE courses!
• Putting many thousands of AL hours at risk.
• Identifying undergraduate courses (including FdA) that will face closure.
• 100 + academic staff informed that their jobs are at risk of redundancy.

We need to scrutinize and challenge these proposals:
• Do they represent efficiency savings?
• Why are so many “student facing” academic staff involved?
• Where are the savings amongst upper and middle management?

Emergency Meeting at the Cochrane
Following our emergency All Members Meeting at the Cochrane Theatre on the 16th February it is important to update you on the current situation facing members at our university.

University Unions stand united
As stated clearly at the meeting, the UCU CoCom at UAL, and standing together with the GMB and Unison unions, do not accept that the management of our university have engaged in what would be normally expected as a reasonable and genuine consultation with the unions regarding the large scale re-structuring of Central Services and the Colleges.

Management’s refusal to engage in meaningful consultation
It is vital to connect management’s reluctance to involve the recognized trade unions, representing all staff at the university, in meaningful consultation in the light of our ongoing dispute following the wholesale closure of courses that took place in 2009.

• The improper manner in which course were summarily shut down at LCC was particularly shocking to all our members, resulting in our demand that course closure protocol should adhere to the academic regulations of our university. This became one of the three strands that formed the successful ballot on taking industrial action in 2010.

• The refusal of management to engage in genuine consultation continues. We continue to press for a Redundancy Avoidance Procedure and that was second of the three issues that we took strike action to show the strength and resolve of our UCU branches across the University to challenge the acceptance of compulsory redundancies.

Motion passed unanimously at the All Members Meeting
Those present at the meeting unanimously passed a motion to demand that a Redundancy Avoidance Procedure be agreed and instituted by management by the end of this term. Unless agreement is reached CoCom will ballot members for further industrial action to secure this objective.

Efficiency Plans
Current status of Collective Consultation

The tabling and publication of the Central Services and College Efficiency Plans (except CSM Phase 3 Re-structuring) in January 2011 emphasises the need for a Redundancy Avoidance Agreement because, as these plans stand at the moment, it has resulted in entire areas of academic staff finding that their roles are at risk of redundancy. This is followed by months of uncertainty, stress, and the added anxiety of applying for posts in competition with friends and colleagues.

Minimum statutory period of 90 days Collective Consultation
Many of the issues that have arisen and the consequent challenges we are making in relation to the business cases could have been resolved if university management worked with us to avoid compulsory redundancy in a meaningful process of consultation. As it is, resulting from the joint unions insistence, we are now consulting on the basis of the minimum statutory period of 90 days Collective Consultation. This is the minimum acceptable. However, if fairness in the process is compromised, if outstanding issues remain unresolved to the detriment of any member of staff, we will demand that meaningful consultation with a view to resolution continues to proceed.


We must protect the Terms and Conditions of all academic staff

The treatment of AL’s and Terms and Conditions for all academic staff
Recent instances of unreasonable treatment of AL’s during this academic year 2010/11, and often resulting from bogus assumptions as to the reasons for the recent 12.5% pay rise for AL’s, need to be resolved as a matter of urgency. This issue is currently being discussed with management in a constructive way to avoid any future misunderstandings and inappropriate requests from line managers being addressed to AL’s.

Pay, Terms and Conditions, AL related Equal Pay for Equal Work and our loading agreement with the university
The discussions relating to the AL related matters (see above) have highlighted the need for a much clearer understanding of the framework UCU at UAL have agreed with UAL for academic staff in terms of pay and terms and conditions, and the norms that govern both the teaching oriented and research oriented work loading factors.

Beware the Ides of March
In this so called period of “austerity”, don’t be surprised if there is an attempt at some point in the near future to re-frame our terms and conditions of employment.

AL’s have equal pay and conditions to fulltime staff
For an AL an hours paid work also includes a nominal one hour of preparation for teaching and an additional 15 minute period relating to formative and summative assessment. This calculation is about establishing parity between FTE staff and AL’s in terms of the overall framework in terms and conditions relating to time that staff self manage in relation to preparation, research and/or scholarly activity related to their teaching role and subject expertise. It also relates to time that is reasonably allocated by a line manager in relation to meetings related to the efficient running of courses and time for assessment. The key word is reasonable.


Loading Checker
This framework is not up for grabs, but if as academic staff we are unclear as to what the framework is, then misunderstandings can arise. We need to establish with management a clear understanding of what “preparation” entails. We need to articulate what the normal practice of studio based teaching in art and design education presently involves, what it entails in terms of time for preparation, reflection etc in the normative patterns of teaching and learning that take place. The loading checker at http://www.myucu.net/page81.html on the website (http://www.myucu.net/index.html) is a good way to calculate how Formal Scheduled Teaching is supported by time spent in research, scholarly activity and assessment.

Monitoring stress and the academic working environment at UAL
In these very difficult times members are raising serious questions concerning the way UAL management are dealing with those aspects of the working environment that cause unnecessary levels of unacceptable stress. Academic staff employed at UAL demonstrate their ability to manage and cope with pressures in the workplace on a daily basis. However it is unacceptable for academic staff to experience stress as a result of harassment or worse. We need the vigilance of members to identify behaviours of colleagues with the potential to cause unnecessary stress. We need to practice a robust policy of zero tolerance to any behaviour that verges on bullying.
Serious questions remain concerning the analysis of recent surveys into this matter.

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Effects of New Efficiency Programmes

UCU has recieved business efficiency plans for all colleges and will be meeting with management on 11th February.

Quick Overview

II looks like that as a result of the New Efficiency Programmes that at LCC there are 30 posts affected along with 15 AL's identified in the 20 FTE + 700 Al hours cut.

A quick overview of the other Colleges looks like the following:

Info Re: CCW
In all at CCW FTE of staff at Risk 31.95
affecting 42 staff
with 19.2 FTE roles available for competitive selection
2.5 FTE where staff affected have no access to competitive selection

So, the total FTE proposed reduction is 12.75 FTE with reduction AL staffing of 2410 hours (from current total circa 10,000 hours) with no Al's affected at Camberwell 21, Chelsea 13, Wimbledon 23.

Info Re: CSM
In the re-structuring current posts equivalent to 46.4 FTE divides into 43.7 FTE so staffing reduces by 2.7 FTE.
Course closure for fda fine art and pg cert glass.
Then there is a reduction of 2,200 AL hours.
This is including 1700 hours in the School of Art due to conversion of post grad courses from full-time to extended full-time mode with some hours likely to be restored 2012/13.
Also 500 hours from FE re-structuring Byam Shaw and CSM Foundation.

Info Re: LCF


FE cut 7.1 FTE plus 23 AL's affected, but how many hours is involved?
Int & Enterprise 1.0 FTE
Int Partnerships 1.0 FTE
Grad School Research cut 0.4 FTE
Schoolof Design and Technology 1.5 FTE at risk

New Union Motions

The following motion has been passed at 4 of the 6 UAL branches during the last week -

1. This branch condemns the cut in government funding and the
rise in tuition fees.

2. This branch opposes any move towards a system of differential fees as the basis of future course funding at the University of The Arts London.

3. We believe any such move towards a Neoliberal market model can only be detrimental to the provision and integrity of arts education at the University.

A reort on the new Efficiency programmes and other updates will appaer shortly.

Richard Osborne
UAL CHair

Report on the Dispute

as above this is a summary of the present position vis a vis the University.

Richard Osborne

Welcome to the new MYUCU blog

all relevant and current information on Union matters, employment and terms and conditions of employment will be posted here.