Motions passed at General meetings

OU UCU motions passed at the General meeting on 21st July 2022 

Motion 1

This branch believes: 
That good communications are essential in supporting any strategy to bring in new activist members. 

Therefore resolves: 
In order to support the work of the newly formed Communications Group, we should trial the role of Communications Lead on the Executive Committee. In this period, their role would be to work with the Comms Group and to support other Exec Committee officers, particularly the President and Honorary Secretary, and the Branch Administrator, in issuing timely internal and external communication to members, and managing the production of appropriate newsletters to staff groups, and social media for the branch. This role will be reviewed after a year. 

Motion 2 - Stress, Workload, and Wellbeing at the OU 

This branch notes the recent results of the Staff Barometer Survey, the impact of stress on all staff categories, and the fact that excessive workload and associated problems have not improved since this branch’s Workload Survey in 2018. 

We call upon the Open University to:

1. Reinstate the joint union/management Workload Working Group which the university stopped in 2019. This group must be supported to work in conjunction with H&S, People Services, unit budget holders and others to investigate and address excessive workloads and stress 
2. Conduct an immediate university-wide H&S stress risk assessment covering all staff cate-gories and PGR students no later than September 2022 
3. Working with the unions, develop a remedial action plan with measurable objectives for any areas of concern from this risk assessment across all staff categories and PGRs no later than the end of 2022
4. Immediately convene negotiations with UCU on homeworking and hybrid working, includ-ing but not limited to equipment, allowances, residency, and site use
5. Undertake a detailed review of the Staff Tutor/SEM workload and tasks (as requested by UCU repeatedly since 2018 and within the recommendations of the trade union H&S in-spection of December 2020), and urgently implement remedial action to alleviate stress and workload in this role in the short- medium- and long-term 
6. Agree and run a joint project with UCU to investigate excessive workload and stress for academic-related staff and barriers to career development and promotion, with a commit-ment to implementing the recommendations
7. Agree and run a joint project with UCU on reviewing a) Associate Lecturer workload norms and b) other academic workload norms as used in the Academic Workload Man-agement system (AWM) with a view to establishing a realistic, consistent and fair ap-proach for all faculty staff
8. Provide parity of annual leave entitlement across the university and in particular equality between Associate Lecturers and other academic staff 
9. Agree to explore the possibility of a 35-hour working week in line with the national pay claim, and also to explore the findings from national and international pilots of the 4-day work week.  

OU UCU motions passed at the Annual General meeting on 7th June 2022 

• Academic-related, Associate Lecturer and Academic staff are all eligible and valued members of the Open University branch of UCU (OUBUCU)
• All eligible staff should be equally supported by OUBUCAll eligible staff categories should have equal opportunities to influence OUBUCU strategy and policy 
• A diverse OUBUCU is a stronger branch.

• OUBUCU should campaign publicly on local Open University and national UCU issues which resonate with all eligible staff categories and share details of successes, which would demonstrate the inclusiveness of UCU and its value to all members and poten-tial members.
• All eligible staff should be provided with mechanisms to engage with OUBUCU fairly and equally
• OUBUCU should proactively seek to widen and diversify its membership across all eligible OU staff categories.

OU UCU motion passed at the General meeting on 4th May 2022 

Donations and solidarity for UCU branches taking action

This branch notes that a number of HE and FE branches will be taking action in the coming months and authorises the Branch Committee to make appropriate donations to local hardship funds.

This branch also notes that some HE branches will soon be taking action over the Four Fights and (depending on HESC decisions) over USS. These branches will be taking action over national disputes on behalf of branches which cannot take action this time as a result of anti-trade union legislation.

This meeting asks the branch executive committee to consider making donations up to a total amount similar to that we would expect to spend if the OU UCU branch were taking action.

This meeting also asks the executive committee to organise support for branches taking action by publicising and supporting their rallies and other events, fund raising, and other practical support.
 

 

OU UCU motions passed at the General meeting on 4th March 2022 

OU UCU motion passed at the General meeting on 17th January 2022

• National Joint Claims’ power to secure improvements beyond pay uplifts, and so to recruit and organise members, is under-recognised
• Climate emergency anti-casualisation is an area of potential transformation#
• That precarious tertiary education employment is often carbon intensive, featuring significant long-distance commuting and frequent home moves.

• Strategic national agreement on transition planning and job (role) frameworks, preventing stranded employment or dead-end career pathways
• Anti-casualisation, providing long term stability for employers and employees to adapt
• Reduced precarity, including employer support and paid time for retraining

OU UCU motions passed at the General meeting on 20th October 2021

This General Meeting agrees to the setting up of a local hardship fund to supplement the national UCU fighting fund during any industrial action over USS pensions or over pay this academic year. The purpose of the fund will be to support branch members who face hardship, as a result of lost pay during the industrial action. 

This meeting authorises: 

1. The transfer of an initial sum of £50,000 from local branch funds into the hardship fund and asks the branch executive to set up a process for members to access the fund in accordance with national UCU guidance. 

2. The branch committee to seek to increase the hardship fund further by asking for donations, to the extent that this is practically possible.

Any money remaining in the hardship fund at the end of the action should be transferred back into our local branch funds, leaving a token amount to keep the account active.

 

Motion 2

OU UCU motion passed at the General meeting on 23rd September 2021

Motion on ALCCP briefing
This meeting notes the proposed misuse of AL Academic Currency time, and low overall pay for new ALs starting this October and considers these to be unacceptable.

Proposed amendment to the motion
This meeting notes the proposed misuse of AL Academic Currency and Professional Development time, and low overall pay for new ALs starting this October and considers these to be unacceptable.

Overwriting the self-directed part of AL Academic Currency time with other work is equivalent to the cancellation of study leave for academic staff. Overwriting the agreed Professional Development and Academic Currency time is equivalent to asking ALs not to read course materials that they are about to teach. Crucially, overwriting either the AL-led Academic Currency time or the Agreed Professional Development and Academic Currency time with Mandatory training is contrary to the purpose of the former two and directly contrary to the negotiated policy on 'AL Professional Development and Academic Currency' which states that neither the 6 days pro-rata for AL-led AC time nor the 1 + 5 days pro rata for Agreed PD and AC time are to be used for Mandatory training (e.g., IT training, Prevent, etc.)

The OU made a commitment that no AL would be financially worse off due to the delay in implementing the new AL contract. This is breached by overwriting Professional Development and Academic Currency time with other work. This especially applies to new ALs in 21J since three half days' induction are for IT training which they should be paid for since they are unlikely to have any spare FTE.

When it comes to module briefings, if these are taken to be included in the 1+ 5 days of Agreed PD and AC time, it would entail that the majority of ALs have no time left for the rest of the year to engage in further professional development. If anything further is needed (attending SD days, getting up to speed on a new module, etc.), this would need to be paid for over and above their FTE unless they have other unused FTE. As things stand, there is no indicated intention to cover this with additional payments.

This branch supports the negotiators in pursuing this matter through negotiation, arbitration, or by lodging a dispute if necessary.

View the ALCCP briefing.
View the agreed policy balloted on in 2019.
 
This policy is cited in Section 19 of the new AL Terms and Conditions, and the current AL Terms and Conditions also have caveats on the use of staff development time in Section 9c.

 

OU UCU motion passed at the General meeting on 17th August 2021

This branch notes the ongoing dispute over the USS valuation, plans developed by UUK for unjustified and substantial cuts to pension benefits, and the refusal of USS to divest from fossil fuels.

Kings College London UCU and other branches are fundraising to explore legal action against the USS Trustees on several potential grounds (see: Save university pensions, and save the planet (crowdjustice.com).  This initiative has support from UCU negotiators and is intended to complement any action undertaken by national UCU. 

The branch calls upon the Executive Committee to publicise this fundraising effort to members and to make an initial contribution of £500 to this fund.

OU UCU motion passed at the General meeting on 22nd July 2021

1. The pandemic and lockdowns have focused attention on homeworking, and on associated costs and benefits
2. UCU has developed new policy on homeworking during the past year
3. The OU Homeworking Policy and associated guidance was never negotiated with UCU
4. The OU Homeworking Policy and guidance focus on cost savings to the employee that result from homeworking rather than the savings made by the employer on building maintenance, heating and lighting etc, and devolve the cost of health and safety equipment on homeworkers.

OU UCU motion passed at the Annual General meeting on 3rd June 2021

Motion 

• the ongoing threat of redundancies amongst academic, academic-related and professional services staff at the University of Leicester (for 26 of these staff notices of redundancy were issued on the 11th May), 
• the enormous stress and anxiety caused not only amongst ‘affected’ colleagues but also those deemed to be ‘unaffected’, 
• the contradictory way in which the senior management team have managed the process 
• the evidence that, in the School of Business in particular, management’s strategy is best explained by union busting rather than anything else (Hawkins and Routledge, 2021). 

1. to endorse formally UCU’s greylisting of Leicester, announced on the 4th May, 
2. to declare publicly our solidarity with comrades there and 
3. to approve the donation of £1000 from branch funds to support their industrial action. 

OU UCU motion passed at the Extraordinary General meeting on 27th April 2021

Motion - Staff Tutor's/Student Experience Manager's Claim

This meeting endorses the claim for Staff Tutors and Student Experience Managers in the appendix to the EGM agenda, and asks our Executive committee and ST/SEM negotiators to negotiate with the university on the basis of this claim, and to do what is necessary to pursue it.

 

OU UCU motions passed at the Extraordinary General meeting on 31st March 2021

Motion 1 - Proceed with claim

The meeting endorses the attached claim for mitigation and compensation for Associate Lecturers following the decision by VCE to delay implementation of the new AL contract.
 
This meeting authorises the OU UCU negotiators and executive committee to negotiate with management on the basis of this claim, to make any necessary additions, and to enter a dispute with the university in the event of failure to agree, and if necessary to take the initial steps required to organise legal industrial action.
 
This meeting also authorises the OU UCU executive committee and ST/SEM negotiators to draft a claim on behalf of staff tutors, addressing workload and related stress, and the need for proper systems and support, and to take any necessary measures to pursue it.

This meeting authorises the executive committee to use up to £20,000 of OU branch funds in support of the claims referred to in this motion.

Motion 2 - Support for AL Members in Case of Strike Action

This meeting notes there is massive support for the ongoing decasualisation process among all categories of OU staff. OUBUCU members in all roles are dismayed at the news that the timetable towards the new contract is being abandoned, with often severe financial consequences to individuals. Members wish to demonstrate practical solidarity with those who are forced to threaten industrial action in response. An injury to one is an injury to all. 

This meeting asks the Branch Committee to establish an active appeal for the Hardship Fund, in order to make it clear to AL members that they will receive financial support to compensate for hardship resulting from any industrial action, should this be necessary in support of the new contract and the 'no detriment' principle. 

This appeal will be aimed at non-AL members in the branch and could involve pledges to the branch Hardship Fund that will be activated only should industrial action prove necessary over this issue. 

This meeting notes that the University Secretary of the Open University, as chair of the AL Contract Delivery Board, on Monday 21 March 2021 announced a delay to the implementation of the AL Contract after more than two years of work.  As context this meeting notes:

• Failure to implement the new contract means the loss of job security and thousands of pounds for over 4000 associate lecturers, many of whom took significant financial deci-sions on the basis of commitments from the university
• A key reason given was that systems were not in place for delivery, which constitutes a comprehensive institutional failure for which the Delivery Board and Vice Chancellor’s Executive are responsible
• There was no contingency planning in place for stopping the contract implementation (the legality of which decision is still in question)
• There was no notification to the union in advance of this decision so no negotiation with the union took place
• Because the proposed mitigation efforts (dated Wednesday 24 March 2021) were not discussed with the union, they do not adequately address job security or financial loss - for instance owing to the omission of Tuition Related Activities which make up the FTE of hundreds of ALs 
• In communicating this decision there was no consideration of the duty of care to staff, whether those directly affected or those attempting to handle the practical and emotional fallout of this decision.

Given these failures this meeting states that it has no confidence in the University Secretary.  There must be a formal review of VCE actions and decision-making that have led to this situation.

 

OU UCU motion passed at the General meeting on 16th March 2021 for UCU Congress

1. The UCU Climate & Sustainability Conference held in March 2021.
2. That the meeting positively supported the self-education and organising of activists.
3. That creating stable structures for holding similar recurring meetings, and to represent and organise members on this employment interest, would be valuable to UCU and the NEC.

1. That UCU holds an Annual Meeting on Environmental Issues each year, to advise the NEC under Rule 25.1 or by other constitutional means.
2. That standing orders be drawn up to organise formally the Annual Meeting, including allowing branches to send motions and a report to be made available to the NEC.
3. The meeting should keep a timetable similar to other such Annual Meetings.
4. Recognising the organising benefits of creating a stable advisory body for members to coalesce around within UCU, to address this sector-wide interest by establishing a standing advisory committee.

 

OU UCU motion passed at the General meeting on 24th February 2021

• The rapid growth of learning technology in tertiary education as described in The Automatic University: review of datafication and automation in Higher Education', a report by UCU Scot-land.
• The rise of non-education jobs in the gig economy based upon casualised, highly surveilled employment relationships often mediated by an app.
• The incursion of international learning technology organisations into UK universities bringing exploitative employment models from Big Tech
• Increased use of teaching and learning based on pre-recorded or pre-written materials, rather than interactive activity.  

• Key threats of increased casualisation
• Surveillance elements as they affect employees’ autonomy and wellbeing
• Successful steps taken by trade unions experienced in performing rights (eg BECTU/Prospect and the NUJ) to defend members' rights 
• Recommendations from the findings for fighting casualisation and deterioration of working conditions arising from new learning technology.

 

OU UCU motion passed at the General meeting on 24th February 2021

1. Climate change, biodiversity-loss and un-sustainable development are a serious and growing threat to human wellbeing. 
2. The present political situation means that the costs and losses of mitigation or adaptation tend to disproportionately to fall on the less powerful, more marginalised members of society. Within tertiary education, this includes workers on casualised contracts.    

• Casualised members support UCU taking action on point 1.
• Action on point 1 must be part of, rather than in tension with, supporting casualised members. 

1. UCU should campaign for a ‘Green Recovery’ from Covid-19 that prioritises measures which reduce casualisation.
2. Guidance to branches on sustainability should incorporate anti-casualisation, including that:
   • Measures supporting ‘sustainable behaviour’ are made accessible to casualised employees. 
   • Employers must reduce institutions’ environmental impacts and absorb any associated costs, rather than transfer or outsource their impacts or costs to employees, particularly casualised employees.

 

OU UCU motion passed at the General meeting on 25th November 2020

This branch notes:

• The threat of mass redundancies at UEL, and the proposed dismissal of Professor Bhattacharyya, UCU activist and black female professor.
• That other union activists, equality groups, and vulnerably employed staff are likely to be overrepresented among those dismissed at UEL and at other institutions where staff are facing mass redundancies.

We offer our solidarity to members at UEL and other branches in dispute, we also ask the branch executive to agree appropriate donations or other practical support that branches may need.

 

OU UCU motion passed at the General meeting on 22nd July 2020

Donation to National Fighting Fund in Relation to the UCU Levy

Following the recent strike action, national UCU has been forced to implement a levy of £15 from all members (except retired members and those on free subscriptions) to cover a shortfall in the National Fighting Fund. UCU is seeking at least £76,000 in additional donations in order to be able to exempt those on lower salary bands (under £15,000 p.a.) from the levy. The branch has already passed a motion that it will if necessary, provide support from the local Hardship Fund for any OU member who is not able to afford the levy.

Each UCU branch with local reserves has been asked to donate what it can in order to reduce the shortfall before 28 July, when the arrangements for the levy must be made. A donation is a meaningful gesture of solidarity with precarious and low-paid members at institutions who went on strike earlier this year, and who now depend on the Fighting Fund for assistance.

The OU branch holds substantial reserves. A recent branch investment has matured which means that the proposed amount of £30,000 can be donated without incurring any financial penalties or impinging on the funds dedicated to the branch’s Hardship Fund. The proposed donation amount, while substantial, will not constrain future activities and campaigns of the OU branch or hamper its ability to support members.
Given this, the branch resolves to:

• donate £30,000 from branch reserves to support the Fighting Fund.
• encourage any member who is able to make a personal donation to the Fighting Fund.

 

OU UCU motion passed at the General meeting on 22nd July 2020

OUBUCU notes and endorses the following statement:
“UCU Solidarity Movement Statement: Defend Higher Education. Fight for jobs now.
University managements have responded to the Coronavirus crisis by attacking their staff. After rejecting UCU’s claims for a pay rise and action on casualisation and inequality earlier in the year, once Covid hit, they expected staff to rapidly switch to working from home, shouldering the increased demands of developing online teaching and administration, often without suitable equipment or expenses.

It is a disgrace that in institution after institution, they are preparing to repay that flexibility and goodwill by slashing jobs, cutting courses, and even imposing pay cuts.

Boris Johnson’s government is contributing to the crisis by defending a broken funding model based on student fees, refusing a bailout for the sector, and sitting back to watch the devastation as universities fight each other to maintain their student numbers. Not only are tens of thousands of livelihoods at stake, but the future of the Higher Education sector is under threat at the very moment that it is most needed to help the recovery.

The pandemic has not caused this crisis. It has merely provided an excuse for university managements to accelerate the shrinking of their wage bills to pay for the reckless borrowing and capital expenditure they have made in recent years.

As Higher Education workers we need to organise a fightback now. The situation is urgent. Casualised staff are losing their jobs right now and permanent positions are at risk with redundancies threatened before next academic year. The existence of long established institutions is under threat.

This battle cannot be waged branch by branch, institution by institution. We cannot wait for our employers to play us off against each other. We need a UK-wide campaign to resist the attacks and to back up the UCU Fund the Future campaign’s goal of putting HE at the centre of the political agenda. We commit ourselves to continue to organise maximum solidarity for all branches fighting to defend jobs and education.”

OU UCU motion passed at the General meeting on 2nd July 2020

This branch notes with alarm and dismay:

• the section 188 notices issued en masse for staff at Reading University, and the intention to make staff apply for jobs on inferior terms and conditions.

• the timing of the announcement just after the mass solidarity rally on Tuesday 16th June

This branch condemns the destructive and dictatorial behaviour of the Reading University management. We offer solidarity to the staff and to the UCU branch at Reading, and trust that national UCU will do everything it can to support them.  We also ask national UCU and the Reading University UCU branch to note that we are willing to take part in grey-listing Reading University if such action is called for.

 

This AGM notes:

This meeting believes:

This meeting asks that UCU: