皇家华人

An Emergency General Meeting of UCL UCU is taking place online via zoom on Thursday 2 May from 13:00-14:30 (please note the duration of this meeting is 1.5 hours).

1. The urgent matter of 11 redundancies of teaching staff in the History Department: we believe management has breached key negotiated policies, including those for organisational change and redeployment, and the Teaching Concordat. One motion on this has been submitted, see Appendix 2 below.听 One amendment to motion one has been submitted, see Appendix 3 below.

2. Motions for the Special Higher Education Sector Conference called for 17 May on the pattern of attacks in higher education and the future of the sector. One motion has been submitted, see Appendix 2 below.

No amendments to motions were received but places are being held for UCL UCU delegates. If colleagues are able to attend , please email ucu@ucl.ac.uk if you are interested.

All members are encouraged to attend this Emergency General Meeting.听听

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UCL UCU Executive Committee
/ucu
@ucl_ucu

Appendix 1 - Background Information

1. HISTORY REDUNDANCIES - POLICIES NOT FOLLOWED INCL. THE TEACHING CONCORDAT

The management of the History Department have chosen to engage in a wholesale cull of Lecturer (Teaching) posts while simultaneously recruiting academic Lecturers.听

We are concerned that 皇家华人鈥檚 negotiated policies including organisational change and redeployment were simply 鈥榮et aside鈥� in a desire to recruit external candidates. In some cases long-serving staff teaching on courses were not even shortlisted. This reverses the central tenet of 鈥榩arity of esteem鈥� at the heart of UCL鈥檚 Teaching Concordat 2020, returning to a previous practice where teaching staff were seen as fixed term and disposable. If we cannot trust 皇家华人 to stick by agreements of this kind it makes all staff, including academic staff, less secure.

The branch is being called on to consider our collective response to this development, and the possibility of entering into a dispute with UCL.

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2. SPECIAL HE SECTOR CONFERENCE

A is being held online on Friday 17 May. The business of this special higher education sector conference is to 鈥渋dentify a strategy for branches to mount a significant, coordinated, sector level response to threats to jobs, disciplines, T&Cs, including attacks on TPS and academic freedom.鈥澨� .

We are looking for delegates to attend so please email ucu@ucl.ac.uk if you are interested.听 The deadline for registration is Friday 10 May, and the commitment is to join an online meeting for half a day.

More information here: 听

Appendix 2 - Motions Submitted

Motion: Redundancies - Attacking Teaching Staff in the History Department

This branch notes

1. The proposal to make 10 members of staff redundant in the History Department
2. That all the redundancies are among teaching staff
3. That the Organisational Change Procedures and redeployment procedures have not been properly applied for these colleagues
4. That 皇家华人 agreed a Teaching Concordat in 2021 that proposed to make sure that Teaching staff were not treated as disposable staff on insecure contracts

This branch believes

1.听 听 听 That the selecting of teaching staff for redundancies in a department on this scale signals a breach of the principles of the Teaching Concordat

2.听 听 听 That this kind of attack threatens teaching staff generally at 皇家华人

3.听 听 听 That these redundancies are unacceptable and unnecessary

This branch resolves

1.听 听 听 That, should compulsory redundancies go ahead in the History department, UCL UCU will notify management of our entry into a dispute with UCL听

Proposers: Jack Saunders, Saladin Meckled-Garcia, Matteo Tiratelli

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SHESC Motion. Supporting a Convention for Higher Education

SHESC notes

1. The crisis in HE, leading to UUK and UCEA lobbying for high fees and implementing mass redundancies.
2. The roots of this crisis lie in the 2010 fees and loans market system, with the English model increasing pressure on HEIs in other nations.
3. The need to build a broad political consensus in defence of higher education.
4. The partial success of the broad-based 2016 HE Convention initiative in lobbying Government to amend the Higher Education and Research Act.
5. UCU's latest Reclaim HE campaign.

SHESC resolves

1. To support calls for a reconvened Convention for Higher Education initiated by London Region (date to be determined).
2. To send a speaker to this event to discuss UCU's campaigns including Reclaim HE.
3. To build and advertise this event.
4. To support and mobilise for a national demonstration at Goldsmiths University, called by Goldsmiths and London Region UCU.

Submitted by Sean Wallis

Appendix 3 - Amendment 1 to Motion 1

Replace 'this branch resolves' point 1 with the following:

1. That, unless UCL agrees to guarantee no compulsory redundancies in the History department, UCL UCU will invoke the collective dispute resolution procedure, under the terms of Appendix 2 in UCL's Trade Union Recognition Agreement, and immediately notify the Provost of a formal dispute if agreement to defend our members from the threat of compulsory redundancy cannot be reached at JCNC.

Rationale: to expedite a formal dispute with UCL to better pressurise negotiations, and clarify process under the terms of our recognition agreement.

Submitted by Tony Brown