Motions archive 2015

Our branch passed the following motions in 2015.

OU UCU motions passed at the Branch meeting on 12th March 2015

Misuse of anonymised student feedback (for UCU Congress)

Congress notes that:

• Anonymised student feedback can be misused against all teaching and lecturing staff
• That such feedback can be more immediately damaging to casualised staff, who can have their hours cut or be dismissed without due process, and who suffer high levels of anxiety from knowing this.
• That there is evidence that student feedback adversely affect staff belonging to the equality groups
• That anonymised feedback can also be used to legitimise the victimisation of staff who have taken part in industrial action which has affected service to students.

Congress instructs the NEC:

• To provide legal and practical advice to branches on how to defend the rights of members affected by this issue, including casualised staff whose employment can be damaged very quickly by unfavourable student feedback.
• To consult with NUS while bearing in mind UCU’s responsibility is to protect the rights of members.

Affiliation to the People’s Assembly Against Austerity notes (local motion)

1. Under government austerity, more than 13 million people in the UK now sit beneath the poverty line.
2. Whilst government austerity was meant to reduce the deficit, it has grown 10% in the last year, reaching over £100bn.
3. Average pay, taking account of rising prices, has fallen every year since the financial crash, whilst the wealth of the richest 1,000 people in Britain has doubled.
4. That currently, only 1 in 40 new jobs is offered as stable full-time employment, whilst the rest remain to be forms of fake self-employment, temporary, casual or zero hours contracts.
5. The People’s Assembly is a broad united national campaign that brings together all voices against austerity, mobilising resistance and providing support and publicity to local and national struggles.

Believes:

1. Austerity has lowered living standards, cut public services and not reduced the deficit; more of the same will produce the same result.
2. that as a united coalition of trade unions, campaigns, and individuals, we must support and encourage joint coordinated actions, together building a mass movement impossible to ignore.
3. We must demand an alternative in order to secure a just and sustainable future.

Resolves:

1. To affiliate to the People’s Assembly Against Austerity.
2. to support and mobilise for national and local People’s Assembly campaigns and events and to encourage branch members to actively participate in local Peoples Assemblies.
3. To make an additional one-off donation of £100 to The People’s Assembly as part of the 2015 New Year Appeal.

Notes 1-4 have been sourced from: OECD and The Office for National Statistics.

OU UCU motions passed at the Branch meeting on 30th April 2015

LOCAL BRANCH MOTION

This meeting notes that the next scheduled OU UCU branch meeting is not until September, and also notes there are a number of serious matters under discussion in the university that have serious implications, including:

• Locations analysis
• Internal cutbacks
• Early TSA (Tutor Student Allocation) 
• AL workload and group size pay
• Fixed Term Contracts
• AL Internal reference form

This meeting asks the executive committee to convene another branch meeting before the middle of July to allow a full report and discussion by the membership of these, and other relevant, matters.

OU UCU motions passed at the Branch meeting on 23rd September 2015

Motion 1 (USS Pensions rules) 

This branch is conscious of the problems caused to our members, with portfolio careers, by the USS rule, which requires members to retire from all USS type work, before they can claim their USS pension. This affects our part time Associate Lecturer members, who have another employment contract within an HE institution, from which they wish to retire. In order to claim their USS pension, when they retire from their substantive employment, they are forced to give up their OU tutoring work. They cannot retire flexibly, as they would wish, by continuing with their part time OU AL work. This also similarly effects OU staff who have part time work with the OU or other HE institutions.

This branch calls upon UCU to negotiate a rule change with USS, to allow flexible retirement for members who have more than one HE employment contract, allowing them to retire from one employment  contract and draw their USS pension, whilst continuing their other part time employment.

Motion 2 (Emergency motion)

This General meeting (GM) deplores the proposed closure of 7 English Regional centres with a potential loss of up to 500 experienced and dedicated staff.  We believe this proposal if implemented will have a long lasting negative impact on the experience of students as the centres targeted for closure potentially haemorrhage experienced staff leaving new and inexperienced staff to pick up the pieces.

This GM calls on all OU UCU members to support the campaign to retain the centres.

This GM calls on the NEC and HEC to support the campaign and ask other UCU branches to provide solidarity support include, petitions, motions, letters to MPs, and delegations to OU centres threatened with closure.

This GM calls on the NEC and HEC to support a rally of members in Milton Keynes in November prior to final decision being made.

This GM authorises the branch executive to begin the necessary consultation with members prior to a ballot for action.