Professor Malcolm Grant
President and Provost
Sir Stephen Wall, Chair of Council
University College London
Gower Street
London
WC1E 6BT
14 June 2012
Dear Provost and Chair of Council,
Re: Changes to UCL Statute 18
We are writing formally to determine UCL’s position regarding genuine negotiation with
ourselves, the recognised academic staff union, over changes to Statute 18 of UCL’s
Charter and Statutes.
UCL UCU branch officers have had two meetings with Professor Anthony Finkelstein
and his colleagues from Human Resources. We are timetabled to have a third meeting
on 21 June 2012, and a further meeting, shortly before Council sits, on 4 July.
At the last meeting, on 17 May 2012, UCU officers identified a fundamental deficit in
the current proposal, namely that whereas Council has an in-principle obligation to
protect Academic Freedom, in the proposal there is no procedure binding on Council to
effect such protection, either pre-emptively or at appeal. Consequently we formally
object to the proposals as currently formulated.
Throughout these meetings we have made clear that for negotiations to proceed, UCL
had to work to a timetable which permitted a genuine exchange of proposals with UCL
and UCU, and for UCU to consult with its members over changes to their contractual
rights. We have, from the outset, urged UCL to extend the consultation period to
permit this to take place. However, instead of an express commitment to negotiate,
Professor Finkelstein stated his intention to have a “genuine dialogue” (30 April 2012)
with an aim to reach agreement. This is not sufficient.
We note that the current timescale merely requires these four meetings, plus the
collection of web-based feedback until the 26 June, and then a plan to submit the
“final proposal” to Council on 1 October 2012.
The current proposal is not acceptable to UCU or its members. Significant revisions to
the proposal must be made which incorporate procedural protections of Statute 18 and
changes must be negotiated with the UCU.
Consequently for us to reach agreement on changes to Statute we need a commitment
that UCL will not act precipitately by proposing a vote of Council on 1 October to
formally adopt it and put it to Privy Council.
Given UCU’s status as the recognised campus union for academic staff, and UCL’s
commitment to negotiate with us over our members’ terms and conditions, we
consider continued “consultation” without negotiation over any aspect of the imposed
process, timetable and format to lack meaning.
UCLUCU has now had three consecutive branch meetings at which motions were
unanimously passed mandating us to engage in negotiations over the process, its
timetable and content. The last of these motions, passed at an exceptionally well
attended and angry Annual General Meeting, mandates the branch to issue a ‘failure to
agree’ letter and take steps to enter into an industrial dispute with UCL should no
meaningful negotiations take place.
Further, UCU National Congress has voted unanimously to support the UCL branch of
UCU in their campaign to protect Statute 18 as a local dispute of national significance.
Elements we wish to meaningfully negotiate are, inter alia, the content of the proposal
itself, the timetable for negotiations, and the timetable and mechanisms for
consultation with staff.
We therefore demand:
a) genuine negotiations over the content of the revised Statute 18 and
b) an extension to the timescale for negotiations into the Autumn term, with the
removal of any vote on the proposal from the agenda of the 1 October Council
meeting.
We need to impress on you that UCU considers this matter of national importance.
We seek a reply by 20 June, midday.
Yours sincerely,
Barry Jones, UCU Regional Official
2
www.ucu.org.uk
cc:
Professor Anthony Finkelstein, UCL Dean of Engineering
Sally Hunt, UCU General Secretary
Sean Wallis, UCL UCU Branch Secretary
Tamsin Piper, UCL UNITE Branch Secretary
Bill Lehm, UCL UNISON Branch Secretary
Luke Durigan, UCLU Education and Campaigns Officer
3
www.ucu.org.uk