Open letter - fire and re-hire

The branch Executive Committee has sent the following letter to all members of the Open University (OU) Vice-Chancellor's Executive (VCE) and the Chair of the OU Council today (12 December 2024).

We are writing to express our profound sense of shock at the university’s decision to issue threats of fire and rehire proceedings against a group of Associate Lecturers. This unfair and punitive decision is having a damaging impact on staff health, morale, the student experience, industrial relations, and the reputation of this institution as a fair employer that cares about staff welfare. 

The 2018 agreement on a permanent contract for Associate Lecturers included a commitment by the OU to work with UCU towards a maximum FTE of 1.3 by natural turnover. Instead, having substantially increased the number of ALs working over 1.3 during Covid, the OU decided in July 2023 to reduce FTE by threatening to fire and rehire over 150 AL colleagues who did not ‘agree’ to have FTE and pay reduced. This approach is a clear breach of that 2018 agreement and is completely at odds with the values and mission statement of the OU as an institution and employer. 

The Vice-Chancellor's Executive has prevented meaningful negotiations and did not empower their team to even consider reasonable counteroffers from UCU in the recent ACAS supported discussion. Specifically, there was:

• Refusal to delay the implementation of fire and rehire to align with the onset of contract variation terms in Oct 26. This is a punitive action against those not accepting new terms or agreeing to a process that the current government plans to allow only as a measure of last resort (which the current dispute clearly is not). It is an unfair and inappropriate use of Fire and Rehire and will create a two-tier workforce. 
• Refusal to listen to reports from line managers that managements’ currently proposed cut-off date for accepting the changes will create unnecessary extra work and will have a negative impact on the learning experience of students of affected staff. 
• Refusal to extend the deadline for staff to accept the new terms, which minimises the impact of your offer of improved redeployment opportunities (a measure UCU requested as part of the initial consultation in 2023, and which was ignored until now).  

Your publicly presented rationale (staff wellbeing, the student experience, and institutional reputation) for issuing the threat of fire and rehire doesn’t stand up to scrutiny:

• Staff wellbeing has been significantly damaged among the affected staff (as a recent Health and Safety inspection of the process makes clear), and institution wide morale has also fallen to record low levels, according to recent staff surveys.

• The student experience can only be hurt by increasing the stress of the staff who directly support them in their studies (and the line mangers of said staff).  The refusal to move from the April cut-off date will also have a significant negative impact on the students of affected staff, whilst punishing a cohort of ALs that includes multiple recipients of teaching awards.

• Institutional reputation has already been damaged by the decision to threaten staff with an outmoded business practice using an approach the current government has committed to making unlawful in all but the most extreme cases – damage that will significantly increase if VCE follow through on this unfair and punitive act. 

Your current approach is unreasonable, unfair, and totally at odds with the institutional values of the OU. We urge you to reconsider the current course of action before you do irreparable damage to the institution we work for and love.