KU UCU branch votes unanimously to oppose suspension of recruitment to Politics courses and demand consultation

Posted on 26 March 2021 by kingston

At an emergency branch meeting March 26th, Kingston UCU members voted unanimously to to oppose the decision to suspend recruitment to undergraduate courses in the Department of Politics, and any future redundancies, and to demand proper consultation as per our Trade Union Recognition Agreement which mandates that ‘operational decisions, especially those likely to affect the job prospects or security of particular groups or occupation’ should be subject to prior consultation.

We call on the university to commit to supporting the Department of Politics and its students and staff, and congratulate and thank Politics, International Relations & Human Rights students for the enormous initiative and creativity of their efforts to save the undergraduate course and the department.

We believe that Politics should not become a subject taught only at Russell Group universities and that it is vital that it continues to be taught to students from a wide range of backgrounds such as those at Kingston.

Read the motion in full here

KU 2022+ – KU UCU first response

Posted on 19 March 2021 by kingston

Kingston staff have been sent details of KU22+, the university’s “strategic plan for 2022/23 and beyond”. This document contains details of the SMT’s current thinking about the future of Kingston University and it specifies a number of strategic priorities. A number of different working groups have already been formed as part of this strategic plan – as a recognised trade union representing staff, UCU must be included in these working groups.

We have gone through the document in some detail at this point and wanted to draw your attention to a number of significant areas of concern.

On page 11, we note that the plan will be to focus on “eliminating courses ranked in the bottom decile nationally and reducing those ranked in the bottom quartile”. This was surprising to read – UCU has never been consulted on these plans, which have the potential to have a very significant and negative impact on our members. UCU must be consulted as a matter of priority. We are also seeking urgent clarification on what “eliminate” means.

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Kingston Politics Department is under threat!

Posted on 12 March 2021 by kingston

On 4^th March Kingston UCU were told by senior management that undergraduate courses in Politics, International Relations and Human Rights would be closed to new students entries in the next academic year due to low recruitment.

There has been no consultation with staff in the Politics department about these course suspensions.

We believe this is a short-sighted, underhand and unjust act of self-harm by the university, which threatens staff jobs, students’ futures, and Kingston’s reputation. We fear this may be only the start of management using Covid-19 as an excuse for damaging cuts.

Kingston students have launched a petition to save their department. Please sign and share it: https://www.change.org/p/students-save-ku-politics-department

KU UCU have written to senior management requesting these suspensions are halted until there has been proper consultation with staff and union representatives. We have challenged the rationale for suspending undergraduate recruitment, and proposed alternative solutions to improving staff-student ratios.

We will arrange a meeting on this issue soon – keep an eye on your inboxes.

#saveKUpolitics

Protecting HE Jobs from the impact of Covid-19

Posted on 15 May 2020 by kingston

We encourage all members to read the new UCU document ‘Protecting jobs in HE from the impact of Covid-19‘ (intended to be read in conjunction with a recent report on ‘Impact of the Covid-19 pandemic on university finances‘ published for UCU by London Economics).

As a branch we need to be ready to defend members’ jobs, and to deal with management proposals for addressing the impact of the current crisis, particularly if that includes staff redundancies, including those on fixed term or other ‘casual’ contracts, or any other reductions in staff costs.

As the report says, ‘we should not let employers use the crisis to make job cuts or target our most vulnerable members‘.

Now more than ever is the time to have conversations with colleagues in your department or team about joining the union, and for members to get more involved in Kingston UCU branch activity.

Wellbeing working from home and casualisation

Posted on 29 April 2020 by kingston

Here’s a couple of articles members might be interested in:

On wellbeing working from home and why online working can be more tiring and stressful, see ‘The reason Zoom calls drain your energy‘ from BBC Worklife.

On casualisation and Covid-19 being used to target staff on casual and short-term contracts see ‘Covid-19 shows up UK universities’ shameful employment practices‘ by Stefan Collini for the Guardian.

At the recent KU UCU Branch meeting a #CoronaContract motion was passed to call on Kingston University support and protect the jobs of all staff on casual contracts and PhD students.

And the branch committee continues to urge all members to conduct a workstation assessment in view of health and safety considerations under working from home conditions.

Kingston UCU Covid-19 update (from JNCC meeting March 24)

Posted on 27 March 2020 by kingston

On Tuesday 24th March UCU representatives, along with our partner unions, met formally with KU senior management at a Joint Negotiating and Consultative Committee (JNCC) meeting to discuss actions and reactions to the current national Covid-19 emergency.

In the interim between scheduling and the meeting taking place, the situation had moved rapidly nationally and some of the concerns had already been addressed either by KU themselves or by government instruction.

Some of the key areas of concern for our members were:

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Covid-19 Open Letter from Kingston academic staff in support of non-academic colleagues

Posted on 19 March 2020 by kingston

6.30pm 19 March 2020, the following Open Letter to the Vice Chancellor was sent from the Kingston UCU Branch Committee on behalf of academic staff from across the university, expressing their concern for non-academic colleagues in light to the Covid-19 pandemic. It is still open for signatories (KU academic staff only please).

‘To: Kingston University Vice-Chancellor Steven Spier

18 March 2020

We welcome the suspension of face-to-face teaching this week, as well as the decision to shut KSA workshops, as recognition of the unprecedented scale of the global Covid-19 pandemic and the responsibility Kingston University shares in minimising the spread of the virus through reducing the number of people on campus and enabling working from home.

However, as academic members of staff we are very concerned about the situation of our colleagues in administrative, technical, security, facilities management, cleaning, catering, and library roles who may be currently required to work ‘as usual’ on campus until Sunday 22nd March, with a phased reduction then ‘considered’ only where ‘operationally this can be achieved’.

We strongly believe that there can be no ‘as usual’ approach in this context and asking non-academic staff to continue to work on campus (where stocks of hand sanitiser and wipes are running low and staff are having to bring in their own supplies) constitutes an unacceptable risk for both for staff and the students who may continue to use the library and other face-to-face services. Across the country, universities are closing their buildings to the public to ensure the safety of students, staff and the local community, and we ask you to show similar leadership.

Kingston University has a legal responsibility for the welfare and safety of all staff and students, and should not require staff to place their health at risk in the course of their employment. Section 7 of the Health & Safety at Work Act 1974, places a duty on every employee to take reasonable care both for their own health and safety and that of other people who may be affected by their acts or omissions at work. Section 44 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 empowers any employee to remove themselves from circumstances of danger.

We ask that the University suspend library services immediately, directing students to online resources instead. We ask that laboratories are shut down in a safe manner with due consideration to all hazards.We ask that clear communication is provided to all staff confirming that suspending work on campus and/or working from home is acceptable and encouraged.

Furthermore, we ask that any staff who decide to stay at home in an effort to safeguard their health and the health of those around them will not be penalised through deductions to pay, or face any threat of disciplinary action for taking actions which they deem responsible and appropriate during a public health crisis. We ask that the University guarantee the income and job security of all workers who are out-sourced and / or on zero-hours contracts, such as Elior catering staff. We ask that the university openly publish these commitments.

We expect these issues to be addressed and action taken promptly.

Signed,

Kingston UCU Branch Committee, and Kingston academic staff’

Kingston UCU continues to request an emergency Joint Negotiating and Consultative Committee (JNCC) meeting between senior management, HR, ourselves and the other recognised trade unions.

KU UCU’s response to KSA Stage 1 dispute hearing outcome

Posted on 11 March 2020 by kingston

In January we wrote to senior management over a recorded failure to agree, in accordance with the Collective Disputes Procedure and entered into a Stage 1 dispute with the University over its handling of the potential job losses in KSA, among other issues.

A formal Stage 1 meeting was held on 18th February, chaired by Dean of the Faculty of Science, Engineering & Computing / Pro Vice-Chancellor David Mackintosh. We received a letter stating the outcome of the meeting from David Mackintosh, which members can read here: Management Letter Outcome_Stage_1_210220

As far as the University is concerned, this dispute is now closed and we are unable to progress to Stage 2 of this process. However, we have serious issues with the way in which this process was handled. We dispute the university’s own judgement of the outcome of the Stage 1 (Resolution meeting) as set out in the letter.

We maintain that Kingston UCU branch has NOT been involved in any meaningful consultation or negotiation about the extent of the debt in KSA, its origins, the impact on remaining overworked staff, the future shape of KSA currently being determined by a Portfolio Review or the timing or potential for any future job losses.

You can read our full response to the outcome letter, here formulated by the Kingston UCU branch at the branch meeting on the 18th February: Response to dispute 6 March_. We believe:

the meeting was not impartial (the chair was partial)
HR should not have been providing the management response
there has been a failure to negotiate
there has been a failure to consult
there has been a failure to provide information
there are holes in the management case (as noted in our timeline documentation)
current management timelines related to KSA jobs reveal a continued lack of negotiation and consultation with recognised trade unions

Increasingly, it’s our opinion that, regrettably, management uses their notion of “consultation and negotiation” as a tick-box exercise to give legitimacy to decisions already made in the absence of informed input and scrutiny from the experts on the ground – hardworking academic staff. Whilst UCU values its relationship with KU management and our HR colleagues and the opportunity to negotiate and consult on behalf of our members, we are no longer prepared for that relationship to be abused in the plainly unsatisfactory manner outlined above.

UCU dispute and KSA – Update

Posted on 27 February 2020 by kingston

We have been notified of the recent email regarding the UCU dispute sent to staff in KSA and FBSS.

We (Kingston University UCU) completely and irrevocably disagree with the content of the message, in particular the following statement which is untrue and, we believe, designed to mislead.

‘The process for the voluntary severance scheme, which launched in June 2019, included several discussions with our unions, both informally and at our regular Joint Negotiation and Consultation Committee meetings (JNCC), where our trade unions including UCU provided helpful feedback which contributed to the design of the final scheme’.

The facts are:

Monday 17^th June 2019 – UCU invited to informal ‘catch up’ with HR.

Tuesday 18^th June, 1pm – At ‘informal catch up’ UCU were told of an imminent announcement regarding KSA, and the planned staff meeting for CHS & ArCC staff the following day. No details of the announcement were divulged at this meeting. UCU requested that representatives be invited to the meeting on Wed 19^th June.

Wednesday 19^th June – UCU attended the CHS & ArCC staff meeting and it was at this meeting that UCU, along with affected staff, first received information about the opening of the Voluntary Severance (VS)/ Voluntary Exit (VEP) scheme and the need for £1.5M cuts in the form of staff reductions.

At NO time prior to this were UCU involved in consultation or negotiation about the KSA situation nor did we make any contribution to the VS/ VEP scheme planning. Subsequent to the 19^th June meeting, UCU requested an extension to the deadline dates specified at the launch; this request was granted.

We will update members with a fuller response soon.

Kingston UCU now in formal dispute with the university over lack of negotiation and consultation on KSA redundancies

Posted on 19 February 2020 by kingston

On 29^th January 2020, following a Joint Negotiating and Consultative Committee (JNCC) meeting at which a failure to agree was recorded, Kingston UCU branch wrote to senior management in accordance with the Collective Disputes Procedure.

It is the branch’s view that there has been no consultation or negotiation about the need to make £1.5m worth of staff savings in the School of ArCC and Department of CHS nor about the decision to instigate a voluntary severance scheme to effect those savings in part. Instead our members have been asked to blindly accept the amount of cuts and the need for voluntary redundancies. It is therefore clear that Kingston University has already made a strategic decision that has subsequently led to redundancies and that any following proposal for a 45-day consultation period is meaningless.

Given Kingston University’s complete failure to engage with the usual information, consultation and negotiation structures relating to these changes, UCU have no option but to reasonably conclude that those processes would be futile in this instance. Therefore the formal disputes procedure has been invoked.

If you want to contribute to this process and/or have evidence to input please contact us. Please come to the branch meeting on Tuesday 25^th February or Wednesday 26^th February to discuss this and other urgent matters facing our branch.