Get help

There are many different avenues for getting help from UCU, and the support you need will vary depending on the type of issue you’re facing.

If you have an urgent problem, or need to be accompanied to a meeting by a Trade Union Representative, see the section on ‘Casework’.

Supporting yourself

UCU are always happy to support our members with any issue they’re facing at work. However, being more confident in your own rights in the workplace is a good way to protect yourself and your teammates at work. Educating yourself allows you to identify potential issues at an early stage, before they cause harm, and prevent them from escalating.

Many questions relate to the OU’s policies and procedures. Units’ policies are usually archived on their intranet pages. Those affecting personnel are mostly kept on the People Services A-Z, although a number affecting tutors and tuition are in the Academic Services student policies. If you are having a problem at work, you probably want to read the relevant policy as a first port of call, and find out what the OU’s policies have to say about it.

UCU members can sign up for free training, workshops, and PDF guides on all sorts of workplace issues, including union support for career development.

Individual problems at work (casework)

Our trained caseworkers are here to offer support for any problems that members are having individually. We can help with things including (but not restricted to): bullying & harassment, unreasonable workloads, problems with a manager, sickness policy, performance monitoring, CDSA, probation, disability issues, disciplinary cases, grievances, redundancies and severance. 

You can decide how much support you want. You may just be looking for advice before you tackle the problem yourself, or you may want your caseworker to take a more active role. All casework is completely confidential, and we will try to match you with a caseworker from outside your team/unit to avoid conflicts of interest.

Please contact us as soon as you are aware that there is a problem, as in many cases early advice and action can prevent the problem getting worse.

To request a caseworker, please complete our Casework request form (links to Word document, 40kb) and send it to [email protected], or phone our branch administrator on 01908 653069. If your case is not urgent, it helps our caseworkers if you have briefly familiarised yourself with the relevant policy/policies on the issue and can describe where you feel the university has gone wrong. The details you give will help us to link you to a caseworker with the most appropriate experience for your issue, and allow them to consult UCU’s staff experts, if necessary. If the issue is urgent or complex, please go straight to requesting a caseworker.

Casework is only available to members. Once you join, we will provide a trained caseworker and offer support, but we can’t give you legal advice for an issue which began before you joined. In practice, the vast majority of cases are resolved without needing legal representation.

More information about casework is available in our Casework information file (links to Word document, 35kb).

Issues affecting your team or department

If you have an issue that affects your whole team or department – e.g. a restructure has just been announced, or you’re worried about understaffing beyond your personal role – the best route is to raise this with your local rep. Your rep will take a look at the big picture, and work out how to ensure that staff concerns are raised with management. You should usually be able to remain involved, and issues with more volunteers helping tend to move faster.

Your rep may then encourage you to get a caseworker for individual, tailored advice, while continuing to negotiate collective issues on behalf of the wider team. You may want to encourage concerned colleagues to join UCU so they can also get a caseworker.

You can find your local rep on our reps and contacts page. If you don’t have a local rep, or for any reason don’t feel comfortable going via them, you can contact our branch administrator by email ([email protected]) or phone (01908 653069).

Health and Safety

Anyone with Health and Safety concerns should contact the branch by email ([email protected]) or phone (01908 653069). Our H&S support is not limited to members. The role of trade union Health and Safety representatives is to address all matters of health, safety and welfare at work.

Much of this is done through raising issues directly with those responsible, but we can make formal representation by the trade union reps on the university's Health and Safety Committee.

H&S in higher education often relates to work-related stress, venue/lab safety, and IT use.

Legal support

Like all unions, UCU tries to resolve members' employment-related disputes through negotiations at local level. Most cases can be resolved without going to a tribunal or court hearing.

However, sometimes disputes cannot be resolved locally. Consequently, the union offers legal services to members. The UCU legal scheme covers employment rights, personal injury (including workplace stress), policy enquiries, and immigration employment advice.

There are very short timelines for employment tribunal claims, so please contact UCU as soon as possible if you think you may need legal support.

We can’t provide legal support for an issue that began before you joined UCU. For more information about the legal support UCU provides, see the legal support page on the national site.

Other support

UCU nationally offers a range of support measures to members. These can be accessed via the Member Benefits page. It includes counselling, personal financial or legal support, and personal injury claims.

For individual financial issues, members may want to investigate Open Saver, The Open University Employees' Credit Union, in the A-Z page.

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