UCU representatives, who have been raising concerns about workloads, bullying and health and safety, have recently had a vexatious grievance mounted against them and presented without a shred of evidence. The Branch Executive made clear this is intolerable. After meeting UCU, University leaders have decided no action will be taken against any of our officers
Branch officers have been subjected to formal grievance procedures (running over the last two months), with claims of wrong-doing which are completely false, utterly vexatious and presented without a shred of evidence. This was a blatant attempt to victimise UCU representatives. Action and apologies are required. Read the full letter to our VC here.
The 2020-21 round of elections for UCU’s National Executive Committee (NEC) will open on Friday 29 January 2021 and close on Tuesday 2 March 2021. The NEC is one of the most important decision-making bodies in the union and its members are elected by UCU members. On January 11th 2021, at an all members general meeting (with nearly 60 members
UCU branches across the UK are fighting to defend jobs and conditions as the Covid-19 crisis continues to hit education sectors hard. Below are a few examples, including ways for you to show your support. Examples from across the UK: University of East London UCU is fighting compulsory redundancies and unmanageable workloads and are currently balloting
On Friday UCU entered the first phase of legal action against the Westminster government. The action is intended to force a review of its guidance on in-person work on university and college campuses. You can read more about it in the Observer. On September 21 the Westminster government’s own Scientific Advisory Group for Emergencies (SAGE) warned
ARU is referring some employees, who have identified themselves or members of their family as being at very high/high risk or have expressed health and safety concerns at returning to campus, to its Occupational Health Service (OHS). UCU offers the following advice to members who may face such a referral. An employee does NOT have
On 18th October, it was brought to our attention that an Associate Lecturer at ARU (and member of UCU) who had been conducting face to face teaching had caught Covid. The Branch swiftly responded by writing to our Vice Chancellor expressing the following concerns. Management of outbreaks: We are concerned that, further to the reporting
On 15th October, John Hogan, Chair of ARU’s UCU branch wrote to the Vice Chancellor to express concerns about the ongoing Covid-19 crisis. The letter has been summarised below. It has been announced by the UK Government today that both Essex and London have now been placed in the Local Covid Alert Level: High (Tier
On October 6th our UCU reps met with members of Senior Management, Paul Baxter, and the Head of HR to voice concerns over the timescales for marking at the end of trimesters. UCU reps conveyed concerns that members are marking over Christmas with very tight deadlines to complete work, and this causes considerable stress and
Resolution of Official Dispute. UCU at Anglia Ruskin University was the first branch in the UK to declare a dispute regarding the management of the Covid-19 pandemic.
