Associate Lecturers
OUBUCU services to AL members
OUBUCU is recognised by the Open University as representing the interests of ALs.
With your support as a member, we can negotiate from a strong position with the OU. As with any arrangement, individuals may find themselves uncertain or threatened and this is an area where the union can help you. However, we can provide advice and help only to members. And, like any union, we are stronger with more members.
The subscription can be as little as about £2.50 per month, depending on your total OU salary. If you are already a member of the UCU at another university, you may be able to join OUBUCU for free.
Pensions for ALs
After a long battle, which included the unsuccessful employment Tribunal claims for access and backdated rights, the OU have from 1st November 2004 provided the opportunity for ALs on tutoring contracts to join USS and accrue pensionable service.
For those already in membership of USS for other work, this new service will be combined with your other permanent service and the appropriate calculations made at the time you draw the benefits.
As a result of recent negotiations arising from the AL Role Review the university has agreed to bring a number of jobs that ALs currently do on consultancy contracts, such as monitoring, mentoring, and critically reading course materials within the scope of the AL contract. This means that the earnings for these activities will start to count towards our pensions when the new version of the contract is brought in.
Following is the link to the OU web page on AL pensions:
http://www.open.ac.uk/tutors/employment-info/pages/salary-and-benefits/pensions.htm
Any queries you have should, in the first instance, be discussed with the OU Pensions department. Therefafter, any unresolved queries may be sent to Geraldine Egan, National Pensions Official at gegan@ucu.org.uk or by telephoning 0121 634 7387.
AL regional representatives
If you are an UCU member, you can get help and advice from your AL regional representative or your AL representatives on the Branch Executive Committee or contact OUBUCU at ucu@open.ac.uk.
We have added a document on AL salary band calculation for information, this was mentioned in the December 2009 issue of the Spark.