An update regarding the current state of play in relation to our ongoing engagement with HR and management.
We will be holding another extraordinary meeting of the branch soon to discuss next steps – we will notify members of the time and date soon.
This was sent today (21st September) from the Kingston UCU branch committee to the Senior Leadership Team, through the official channel of the Joint Negotiating and Consultative Committee (JNCC):
Dear JNCC colleagues,
KU UCU fervently request that Senior management adopt an immediate change of policy on face to face teaching in TB1.
Prompted by the rapidly changing Covid 19 national situation and particularly the dramatic increases in cases in our city, we request that all teaching be moved online except where face to face teaching is essential on pedagogic grounds.
The university has stated a commitment to review policies if the national situation changes. That time is now!
Further, KU UCU are not satisfied that campuses provide a safe working environment for our staff and students. Despite repeated requests we still have not had satisfactory clarity in relation to many H&S issues, particularly reporting of positive cases, and subsequent testing and tracing. We cannot recommend that our members return to a less than safe working environment. It also looks likely that the London Mayor will call for working from home and essential only use of public transport in the next few days. We believe that asking staff and students to travel and work/ learn on campus at this time puts them at unnecessary risk, particularly when online delivery is a viable and safer alternative.
We are also concerned about reports of strong arm and coercive tactics aimed at pressuring colleagues into returning to campus. We are logging these and will raise with management.
KU UCU branch committee
As promised an update on our current position (as of 17 September 2020):
Firstly, thank you for all your input and communications regarding concerns and experiences related to returning to campus. We have collated, and presented an outline summary of these to management.
KU UCU are holding firm in the opinion that all teaching, in TB1 at least, should be online except in situations where face to face teaching is essential on pedagogic grounds such as laboratory or studio sessions. This concurs with the current advice from UCU national.
This is the two weeks in the making management response to our demand for online teaching as the default: Response letter to UCU Branch motions AJK 150920 DM
We will send further updates, but this clearly falls short of our, and the national UCU, position on safe return to campus.
We are arranging an extraordinary meeting of the KU UCU branch to propose a motion relating to the University’s plans regarding face to face teaching this teaching block this Friday 28/08 at 1pm. At this meeting, we will be proposing and voting on the following motion.
This branch notes that Independent Sage have released a Consultation Statement on Universities, urging British universities to pursue online teaching as the ‘default option’ and avoid face-to-face teaching where possible.
We further note their recommendations of regular testing for all students and staff, that masks should be worn in any face-to-face teaching, and that universities should work with students to agree a contract committing everybody to act responsibly on and off campus.
This branch believes that teaching in Teaching Block 1 of the academic year 2020/21 should be online as far as possible, rather than having a 30% minimum face-to-face teaching imposed across the board. We recognise that there are course-specific circumstances where not all teaching can feasibly be done online. Where this is the case (as determined by local Course Teams), face-to-face teaching must be undertaken on a fully voluntary basis with guarantees that those who do not opt to teach face-to-face will not suffer any financial or career detriment. Coercion of individuals by line managers to attempt to force returns to on campus working should be prohibited by the university.
This branch further believes that:
Please do join us to discuss this important issue if at all possible. If this motion is passed, we will be able to present it to JNCC and it will need to be considered by management.
Please check your inboxes for the Zoom link and remember to ensure that your full name is visible when you join the meeting.
The latest news from our Health & Safety Rep, Fatima Felisberti:
Kingston University H&S team is devising plans and considering closing buildings (or parts of them) in response to any new Covid-19 cases. In the event of a general London lockdown, I was told that:
“the university will need to follow stipulations from Government and would move to having as many people working at home as possible and would aim to provide as much teaching online as possible. This would be the case for any other type of lockdown, local or specific to KU”.
The Covid-19 Secure Risk Assessment and Re-Opening Health & Safety Plan have been published on StaffSpace:https://kingstonuniversity.sharepoint.com/sites/staffspace/planning-for-the-new-academic-year/accessing-our-buildings-safely/Pages/default.aspx – links at bottom of the page. [NB. these are not the most up-to-date versions of these documents]
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.
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.
