Reps and Contacts

For urgent problems, particularly needing to be accompanied by a Trade Union Representative, please email the branch mailbox on ucu@open.ac.uk. 

If you have an issue then we have someone waiting to help! Any questions, email ucu@open.ac.uk.
 
Each type of Representative has a different specialism. You can email an individual Rep if that makes sense for your problem, but we also try to work in teams so that no one ends up too busy. If you email the branch mailbox we will make sure your enquiry goes to the right place. The first point of contact is usually your Departmental Rep. This means Associate Lecturers should contact the AL Reps, and depending on whether it is a Faculty, Nation or universal issue, someone will be in touch. For academics, or for Academic-Related and Professional Services staff, the contacts are your Unit Reps. The Open College of the Arts also have Reps aligned with their main staff types.
 
If you are interested in helping the branch out but you don’t want to be publicly listed as a Rep, you can be a Local Contact. This just means that you have offered to be contacted on matters connected to your expertise or unit, and to send us useful information. You’ll occasionally be invited to slightly niche meetings that wouldn’t get advertised in the all-member Friday Email, but you don’t have any responsibilities.
 
We have specialist Reps for particular issues: Union Learning Reps for training and professional development. Health and Safety Reps are for most H&S issues, including excess workload. The Equalities Reps support a range of issues affecting Black, Disabled, LGBT, Migrant, Women members. The Pensions Reps meet with the university about USS. The Green Reps focus on climate and ecological issues.

A number of branch members also serve in the national structures, whether that's the National Executive Committee(s), the advisory and regional committees, or as delegates to Congress. 

If you require personal support you may need a Caseworker, which is slightly different. See our Get Help page.

If you are (or are interested in becoming) a Rep, there is useful info on the 'Rules, agreements and forms' page.  

Branch Executive Committee 2024-2025

The executive committee consists of the branch officers and 12 ordinary members who are elected once a year by ballot of the membership, plus a few ex-officio members and a limited number of co-opted members. The executive committee is responsible for the day to day running of the branch and determines the composition of our negotiating teams. The executive also sets up working groups, which usually consist of executive members but sometimes include other members. Click here to view the current Executive Committee.

Associate Lecturer Representatives 2024-2025

The Associate Lecturer (AL) Reps committee is a group of AL representatives and the branch's elected ALs officer - the Branch President, Hon Secretary and ALs Officer are also invited to the meetings of this committee. The committee has its Standing Orders that can be read here, these were last amended at the an Executive Committee meeting in 2022. The AL reps are elected once a year by our AL members in each faculty and Nation. They are points of contact, and local representatives for ALs, and collectively they function as the AL reps’ committee, which plays an important role in advising the branch executive committee on matters relating to AL employment. Our AL Reps Committee for the union year June 2024 to June 2025 is as follows. If you would like to contact an AL Rep or Reps please contact the Branch office on 01908 6(53069) or ucu@open.ac.uk, and we will pass your query on.

By invitation to the committee: 

Branch ALs Officer - Jenny Kermally
Hon. Secretary - Lesley Kane
Branch President - Pete Wood
Hon. Treasurer - Peter Piper

Equality Reps

These reps advise and represent on issues mirroring UCU's national equalities standing committees (Black, Disabled, LGBT, Migrant and Women). We prefer that members leading on an issue do self-define as belonging to the relevant constituent section of members, but the group is open to members working across topics and as allies. These are all new reps from January 2025. 

Green Reps

The branch has multiple reps active on sustainability and Just Transition issues, with branch activities co-ordinated by Peter Wood, Branch President and national co-chair of the UCU Climate and Ecological Emergency Committee. To attend Green Reps training, or to join the relevant branch working group, contact: ucu@open.ac.uk.

Health and Safety reps

Health and Safety representatives address all matters of health, safety and welfare at work, including work-related stress, venue/lab safety, and IT use. They sit on the university's Health and Safety Committee. Our current Reps are:

Lesley Kane
Peter Piper
Saleem Rashid
Kit Power
Caitlin Adams
Jenny Kermally
Chenoa Putter
Francesca Benatti

Health and Safety Workload Reps

Kit Power
Caitlin Adams
Jenny Kermally
Chenoa Putter
Francesca Benatti
Torin Grace
Alison Higgs

Further information about the roles can be found in the TUC ‘brown book’, and the Health and Safety Executive. 

Local Contacts

As part of the UCU Build the union campaign, members can volunteer to be a UCU local contact. We don't put your name on the website or give you a formal role, but it gives the branch executive a point of contact in your unit.

Please email ucu@open.ac.uk if you can volunteer to be a local contact. 

Unit Representatives

We would like UCU members to become departmental representatives/UCU contacts and on the Open University campus, we have the following reps/contacts, if you would like to be a Departmental UCU rep then please contact the UCU Office on 53069 (Deb Shann on Skype for Business or Teams) or ucu@open.ac.uk. If your OU unit/department is not listed then we do not have a rep or contact in that unit, please get in touch if you could volunteer to take on this role.

Open College of the Arts (OCA) reps

Open College of the Arts website 

Pensions Reps

The branch sends representatives to the OU/Trade Unions Pension Forum, and we are always looking for members to support them through the branch’s Pensions Working Group. Reps and working group members receive training and access to the UCU national pensions email lists. Current Reps are: 

Union Learning reps

We are pleased to report that we have several Union Learning representatives trained. For queries about Union Learn reps contact ucu@open.ac.uk.

These members have been trained as Union Learn reps and agreed to be named on our website: 

Gerry Stroud-Campbell 

Union Learn reps information on the UCU website.

UCU National Committees and Congress

The OU branch has always made a strong contribution to the union's national and regional structures, particularly the advisory committees and National Executive Committee.

Becca Harrison – National Executive Committee, May 2023-2025
Lesley Kane – National Executive Committee, May 2024-2026

Gillian Jack – Women members' standing committee, November 2022-2026
Lesley Kane – Women members' standing committee, May 2023-2024

Les Levidow – Climate and Ecological Emergency Committee, November 2023-2025
Peter Wood – Climate and Ecological Emergency Committee, November 2022-2026

Shivanti Lowton - Black members' standing committee, November 2024-2026
Shivanti Lowton - Anti-Casualisation committee, co-opted March 2024

Penny Oderberg - Migrant members' standing committee, November 2024-2026

The OU UCU is entitled to send observers to the Scottish and Welsh National Executive Committees, the Northern Ireland Regional Council, and the English Regional Committees. Please contact the branch if you would like contact the existing observers or to attend the meetings yourself.

Finally, we are entitled to send a number of delegates to Congress, which alernates between the late May Bank Holiday weekend (Sat-Mon) and the week before (Wed-Fri). The process for seeking motions and volunteers to be delegates tends to start in January, to support planning.