One of our big wins, together with Unison, was the harmonization of Annual Leave across all staff at the University. Previously, workers up to grade 7 started on 25 days of Annual Leave and earned one more day each year, up to a maximum of 30 days. This impacted our professional services colleagues and others. Most academic staff will have 35 days Annual Leave for full-time employment. From August 2024, all staff will have 35 days and for 2023-2024 additional days have been granted to those previously on less (pro rata).
In addition, we have ensured that any money taken from staff due to industrial action will go to the Student Hardship Fund once any processing of student fee reimbursements has been done.
Although we did not get the pay rise we fought for, it is notable that the percentage increase in our salaries was also applied to our London Weighting. This had not previously been the case.
We have been participating in working groups that are sub-groups of our normal joint negotiation meetings, which includes Unison. One working group is dedicated to our national goal of anti-casualisation, ensuring fair treatment and pay of HPLs and temporary workers. The other working group is related to this and impacts all of us, as it is dedicated to addressing the issues of our workloads. Both groups have met several times, agreed membership and guiding principles. We hope to see some outcomes from them this year.
Several policies have been updated and reviewed, to reflect the rest of the working sector (not just HE) and to hopefully provide you with a clearer picture of expectations at the University. These include agreement on Personal Relationships, Sickness Absence, and Capability (now Performance Management) policies. These should all now be available via the HR StaffSpace page. More will come this year. In particular, we have asked that all Appendices to policy documents be included in the same document, as these are often difficult to track down.
We have pushed to have broken lifts repaired and to have timetabling issues communicated more effectively. In the coming year we have also agreed to develop a working group to look at data related to job responsibility differences between the genders, i.e. whether more women are course leaders, etc. We also expect some clarity on what is happening with availability of parking, particularly at Penrhyn Road. We have raised the issues of academics in open plan offices and hope to see some resolution this year; if this affects you please let us know on Kingstonucu@gmail.com. We also hope to see more social and communal space for staff.
We ask you to make your voice heard in relation to London Weighting. London Weighting for other universities has been raised to address issues in the pay gap and cost of living, with some rising to £5,000 or more. Unfortunately, some local institutions are also still on the same London Weighting of 30 years ago, £2,134. We wish to jointly agree a motion with Unison to see our London Weighting rise to £5,000, in line with our other London colleagues. Please attend the next branch meeting on January 17 to vote on this motion.
