Motions archive 2020

Our branch passed the following motions at Branch meetings in 2020.

Motion passed at 16 January 2020 Branch meeting

Motion 1 - OU branch of UCU:

1. Commends the Open University’s commitment to respect the rights and protect the wellbeing of all students and staff, and its participation in the Stonewall Diversity Champions Scheme; 
2. Therefore supports: 

• all elements of the OU’s equality and diversity policy as it stands, including the gender identity policy and, 
• the OU continuing to draw upon expertise from Stonewall, the Gender Identity Research and Education Society (GIRES), and Gendered Intelligence (GI), to inform this policy;
• Respects the rights of colleagues to academic debate, and maintains those rights can only be fully realised by all if we create and maintain a fully inclusive environment that recognises the rights of trans, non-binary and other gender-diverse people to self-identify, and to be treated with dignity and respect by OU staff and students and, notes that through providing and sustaining a secure and supportive environment, for all members of the OU community, we protect and uphold academic freedom.

References:

OU Gender Identity Policy and Guidance  

Stonewall Diversity Champions programme  

Gender Identity Research and Education Society (GIRES)  

Gendered Intelligence 

Motion passed at 4 February 2020 Branch meeting

Motion 1 - Academic Freedom

We ask the OU branch of UCU to reaffirm the UCU statement on academic freedom (last updated 27 January 2017).  In reaffirming the commitment to this statement and its underlying principles we ask colleagues to note that: 

1. The academic context in which we work privileges knowledge, critical thinking, debate and peer review.  A key function of post-compulsory education is the fostering of ideas and debate and this always includes discussing ideas and practices that are contrary to current orthodoxies.

2. We are committed to the principle – expressed in Clause 3 – that academic freedom goes beyond the right of academics to discuss matters concerning their immediate, direct and substantive areas of research in an academic milieu.  Academic thinking and practices have to provoke debate and engage with society wide issues.   Academic freedom cannot be constrained by an individual’s area of expertise or confined to an academic context.

3. We believe that all debate, no matter how controversial, must be conducted in a generous and respectful manner and cognisant of Rule 6.1.   We support the view that holding and expressing an opposing view is not the same as causing harm, nuisance or harassment.

Motions passed at 17 February 2020 Branch meeting

Motion 1 proposed for UCU Congress - National Hustings Event (submitted to UCU Congress 2020)

UCU should hold recorded hustings for the posts of General Secretary (and Deputies) and the Presidential team in order to increase voter engagement, ensure parity and meet accessibility obligations.
 
The NEC should create a small election group of 5 to oversee the hustings events and choose chairs.
 
In advance of the election several dates should be provided to candidates to find one that all can attend, if necessary, via remote participation. Expenses should be paid to candidates including for travel, childcare or other caring cover. 
 
The election group should agree a contingency plan for illness or other non-attendance - for example by allowing a recording of timed answers.
 
Members should be made aware of this source of information before the ballot opens. They should be able to submit questions in advance, anonymously. The event should be live-streamed and recorded. The recording should be available on the UCU website with a transcript.

Motion 3 proposed for UCU Congress - Training and sustainability, not casualisation and short-termism

Congress recognises:

HE and FE are changing rapidly, due to changes in income and funding, to politics, society and to technology.

UCU’s Commission for Effective Industrial Action reported that the strength and membership of the Union is best applied and increased by:

• identifying a small number of issues which matter most to members  
• extensive preparation and sustained action, in multiple forms.

Congress holds that:

Educational institutions should be exemplary with regards to:

• supporting lifelong learning, in-work training and professional development.
• long-term sustainability; financial, societal and environmental
• the application of new technologies in accordance with their ideals.

Congress resolves to establish a commission, analogous to the Commission for Effective Industrial Action, formed according to the same membership criteria and reporting process.  

It will produce suggestions focused upon:

• Responses to technological change, particularly those relevant to ongoing training and anti-casualisation
• Sustainability; financial, social and environmental.

Motion 4 proposed for the HE Sector Conference - USS: strengthening UCU, gaining non-member support

Conference notes the JEP2 report stated concerns regarding USS (the ‘Scheme’), including:

• UCU’s ability to reflect “the views of all Scheme members and potential members” (p38)
• Differences in attitude between employees with and without experience of alternative schemes (p73)
• 'noise’ about the valuation leading people to question its value (p73).

Conference holds:

• USS is a key element motivating HE employment, and UCU membership.
• USS produces responsibilities and opportunities for UCU that go beyond UCU’s membership.
• USS opt-in by UCU non-members benefits UCU.
• The member benefits of UCU include independent financial advice (IFA) from ‘Lighthouse Financial Advisers’.

Conference resolves that UCU should investigate:

• Whether and how UCU could benefit from more intensive promotion of IFA to UCU members and non-members.
• Whether this promotion should be of Lighthouse, solely.
• Whether establishing ‘affiliate membership’ of UCU or additional community organising activities, solely addressing USS and linked member benefits, would benefit UCU’s wider aims. 

Motion passed at 11 March 2020 Branch meeting

Motion 2 proposed for the HE Sector Conference – Trump Peace Plan

This conference notes that the Trump ‘Peace Plan’ perpetuates Israeli control well beyond the internationally recognised Green Line, enabling Israeli annexation of land seized through conflict and leaving as Palestinian territory only Bantustans of non-contiguous land. It denies Palestinians a sovereign homeland with a capital in East Jerusalem, control over its security and borders, and freedom of movement within them.

The conference further notes that implementation of this plan, in conjunction with the nation state bill and other laws denying basic rights to non-Jewish citizens, deepens the domination and systematic oppression by one racial group of persons over another, potentially placing Israel in violation of the crime of Apartheid under the UN definition.

The branch calls on Conference to explore all legal avenues to support Palestinian rejection of this disingenuous plan, and to take concrete steps to raise consciousness of the Palestinian plight within and beyond the UK academic community.

Motion passed at 17 March 2020 Branch meeting

The UCU Open University Branch notes that Israeli settlements in occupied territory constitute a breach of international law, as is affirmed by (among many others) the British Government, the United Nations (Security Council and General Assembly), the International Court of Justice, the International Committee of the Red Cross, and the High Contracting Parties to the Geneva Convention.

The UCU OU Branch notes therefore that, because Ariel University is built in a settlement, for the Open University to recognise degrees from Ariel University, or to collaborate with Ariel University in any way, would be complicity in the breaking of international law.

Motions passed at 23 April 2020 Branch meeting

Motion 1 - call for suspension of performance management

This meeting notes that university is functioning in historically unprecedented circumstances. We believe OU staff of all categories care about students and can be trusted to do their best.

Many staff are adjusting to homeworking as well as lockdown, and of those who normally work at home many are now doing so in very abnormal conditions due to the closure of schools, day centres, and lockdown.

In these circumstances it is inappropriate, and indeed a waste of effort and resources, for the university to continue with normal processes of performance management, and this meeting asks the UCU branch executive committee and negotiators to seek:

1. No Performance Improvement Plans (PIPS) to be issued during lockdown.
2. No formal disciplinary processes to be initiated for performance reasons until after lockdown has ended.
3. The pausing of CDSAs during lockdown

and to report back to branch members.

Motion 2 - Disciplinary cases and lockdown

This meeting affirms that staff involved in disciplinary cases have a right to a face-to-face hearing if they wish it. We therefore ask that disciplinary cases should be paused until the end of lockdown if the staff involved want to wait until a face-to-face hearing can take place.

Motions passed at 14 May 2020 Branch meeting

Motion 1 - Personal Protective Equipment (PPE)

This branch notes, with respect, admiration, and gratitude that many of our members have, in common with other OU staff, students, alumni, and hundreds of thousands of people across the nation, returned to, or volunteered to undertake, service in the NHS and other key worker roles at this time of national crisis. We wish to extend to them our heartfelt support and solidarity. 

This branch further notes the following specific issues regarding gaps in provision of PPE to key workers in the NHS and elsewhere, as highlighted by a recent edition of BBC’s ‘Panorama’ program: ‘Has the Government Failed the NHS?’:

• inadequate stockpiling of appropriate PPE

• downgrading COVID19 as a High Consequence Infectious Disease 

• the misleading reporting of ‘items’ of PPE being supplied.

Which have resulted in an increased risk of infection being borne by our most critical workers and patients. 

We call for a public enquiry into this failure of provision, and the wider governmental response, which early indicators suggest may lead to the highest death toll per capita in Europe. We condemn the mismanagement of this crisis and call upon the government to take all necessary steps to protect the health and wellbeing of those on the front line.

Additionally we call upon UCU to initiate and/or contribute to a serious discussion about potential environmental causes that may be increasing the incidence of pandemics, including (but not limited to) the destruction of natural habitats of animal species, exploitation of hitherto untouched environments, climate change, insufficient care and respect for indigenous peoples and their way of life, wildlife markets and agricultural practices.

Late Motion - Solidarity and developing crisis in HE Instituions 

This union notes with dismay that the response of many university managements to the crisis in Higher Education has been a punitive attack on academic, academic-related and teaching staff.

This union believes:

1. that the underlying crisis in HE, which has been made stark by the Covid-19 epidemic, has its roots in the marketisation of the sector and the consequences this has had for both staff and students.

2. that this attempt to make our colleagues in other institutions pay for two crises, neither of their making, is both reprehensible and immoral.

3. that now is the time for a radical reconsideration of the place and purposes of higher education in our society.

This union resolves therefore:

1. to send messages of solidarity and support to any UCU branch representing members in an institution where members’ jobs, security and conditions are under attack.

2. to encourage members of the OUBUCU to engage with the next Higher Education convention in order to begin that radical reconsideration. Further information. 

1. The pandemic has highlighted the un-sustainability of the HE tuition fee market funding model
2. Numbers of mature part-time HE students have never recovered from the introduction of higher student fees in 2012

1. Universities are public assets which provide a crucial public service, namely high-quality education and research
2. That Higher and Further Education will have a crucial role in recovery from the Covid crisis, and that education and re-skilling will be vital for economic recovery and building a better and more sustainable future

1. Campaign against the UUK bailout plan, making the case for publicly funded and accountable Higher Education accessible to all who can attend
2. Campaign for the expansion of educational provision for those young and older people who are unable to gain employment following any post COVID recession.
3. Campaign for an end to tuition fees and the reintroduce student maintenance grants.
4. Campaign for the government to financially underpin all post-16 institutions that are suffering financial hardship due to the Covid-19 crisis, defend on-going educational provision, and preserve jobs and terms and conditions.
5. Support and publicise the statement, 'Time for a New Future for Higher Education'.

Late motion 

This branch notes with dismay the decision by NEC to enact a flat levy of £15 for the Fighting Fund on all full UCU members. It observes that the May 2019 Congress enacted a plan to lessen the cost of UCU membership for lower paid members, which is undermined by this action. It also notes many members are suffering financial stress in the pandemic. 

This branch:

1. asks the NEC to reconsider the application of a flat levy and to attempt a fund-raising campaign in advance of any levy

2. agrees to open the Hardship Fund to cover the £15 levy for those OUBUCU members who cannot afford to pay it, should the flat levy still be required, and

3. directs the Branch Committee to write to the General Secretary to deplore this decision and the manner in which it was communicated to members.

Motion 2

This branch notes with alarm and dismay:

1. 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.

2. 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.

Motion passed at 22 July 2020 Branch Meeting

Motion 1 - 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.

Motion passed at 25 November 2020 Branch Meeting

Motion 

• The threat of mass redundancies at the Univeristy of East London (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.