dispute

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.

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.