DRAFT OUBUCU/EC/2014-9-23 minutes
www.ucu.open.ac.uk
OPEN UNIVERSITY BRANCH OF UNIVERSITY & COLLEGE UNION
MINUTES OF THE EXECUTIVE MEETING HELD ON 24 SEPTEMBER 2014, 10.30AM IN B232,
WILSON B BLOCK, WALTON HALL
Present:
John Bennett, Chris Bollom, Pauline Collins, Judy Ekins, Lesley Kane, Peter Piper, Kate
Servant, Jeni Aldridge, Deb Shann, Stephen Pattinson, Bruce Heil (Chair), Eric Wade
and Lydia Richards UCU.
Remote
participants
Hilary Partridge, Philip O’Sullivan, Liz White and Costas Athanasopoulos.
Apologies:
Meridian, David Houpt, Eric Bowers, Gill Clough and David Knowles.
John Peters did want to join by phone but due to a technical problem this wasn’t
possible.
ACTION
1
MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING
Agreed as a true record.
2
CONFIDENTIALITY OF MINUTES
No items were marked as confidential so the 25 June Exec minutes will now go on
the branch website: http://ucu.open.ac.uk/meetings.
3
MATTERS ARISING
None
4
MEMBERSHIP STATS
Deb provided the % membership in each staff category – the ALs row had the wrong
number of AL members, it should have been:
Total OU ALs UCU members %
Associate Lecturers 5228
1102
21%
CASEWORK STATS
It was agreed at the last Casework meeting in August that these stats should be provided
at each Exec meeting.
Pauline reported that we’ve got 54 trained caseworkers but not all of these are active, we
need to encourage members to take cases as soon as they’ve done the training. Our last
Casework training was Nov 2013 and Deb did ask Daria for dates for another but no reply
yet.
Some of the active caseworkers have too many cases compared to others, eg DK and
BH. Bruce suggested that our experienced caseworkers need to start mentoring the new
caseworkers.
Lesley reported that she and Ben Monks are dealing with about six members on fixed
term contracts who are seeing permanency. These are being dealt with collectively as a
group and not all of them are on the casework log – Deb to get the info.
5
6
6.1
6.2
6.3
6.4
PRESIDENT’S REPORT
OU Regional Campaign – Pauline reported that the group has now produced a list of
arguments for the retention of regional structures and it was agreed that Deb send
this document to the Exec after the Campaigns meeting on 24 Sept.
Agile working – there are some concerns that this is not working as it should be.
There are proposals to change working patterns of QPMs in CICP. We are
collectively challenging the business case behind this decision.
Zero tolerance and a revised Bullying and Harassment policy – Pauline is
attending another meeting with HR this week to discuss further.
Casework meeting, 6 August 2014 - Study Leave, Annual Leave and Workloads
DS
BH/DK
DS/LK
DS
We could make this into a campaign, e.g. a ‘Take Your Leave’ campaign, to encourage
members to take their leave. However, some members may be reluctant to get involved due
to worries that they will lose flexibility and be forced to work fixed hours. Kate reported that in
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the survey of academic-related staff priorities, workload is currently one of the top two issues
highlighted (survey now closed with 174 responses). Caitlin noted that the Executive had set
up a working group on workloads but that this had not been progressed because the members
had not had time to pursue it.
 A survey of workload in Social Sciences would be set up to gain more information
about the issues. Lydia will talk to Jane about helping with this. ACTION: CA, DD, LR
 An article for Spark about leave and contractual rights. (Phrases such as ‘not
unreasonably refused’ or ‘at management discretion’ could indicate that a benefit is
not a contractual right.) ACTION: LR
6.5
6.6
6.7
USS dispute
Pauline reported on the UCU conference on 19 September:
 the proposed changes to USS will affect all members.
 It might be the end of the final salary scheme which is to be replaced by a new
hybrid career average scheme(£40,000 cap). We don’t yet have any formal
proposals from the employers.
 The right to an unreduced pension on redundancy runs out in October 2014.
 The UCU ballot notice has now been served to the employers and the ballot
will open to members on 1st October, email frim Sally Hunt on 23 Sept 2014.
 UCU needs to provide simplified information to send out to members.
Judy reported on the AL issue where they want to retire from their main teaching job
but continue as an OU AL. There are ways round this but they are not ideal and since
auto-enrolment it’s more difficult as USS know about your existence.
Kate reported that some members might prefer to come out of USS and take a
personal pension if it’s not such an attractive scheme. Members might not be keen to
take industrial action.
We hope that UCU will issue advice for members on the changes and the best
pension option, along with a set of FAQs.
John reported that the OU will only contribute to the USS pension scheme and so if
you don’t join USS, the OU won’t pay into another scheme.
FFSU discussion – the pension scheme that existed before USS.
THE article: www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/news/uss-reforms-seen-as-radical-attack-on-pensions/2015786.article
It was decided to form a USS Campaign group with Pauline, Eric Wade and Kate
Servant volunteering to join.
New AL contract negotiations
We’re waiting for the OU reply to our list of negotiation requirements – we will then
consult AL members and hold a ballot on restarting negotiations on a new AL
contract. The OU has to have the faculties’ agreement before we start negotiations.
Lesley reported that we need to break the link between the OU module and the AL
contract - the 2 main issues are workload and pay. The AL salary bands have been
drifting downwards since the current contract was introduced in 2002. We now have
some 60 point modules which are in salary band 6 when they used to be band 7, 8 or
9.
UCU Anti-Casualisation day of action on 5th November – Lesley said that we
could do a survey for all OU ALs to complete, not just UCU members.
Pauline asked if there was Exec approval for our negotiation headings – agreed yes.
AL interim agreement
Lesley reported that the SV1 letter has an appeal for volunteers to take redundancy
or loss of duties. This is something we would not want to be removed, because we
are in favour of “voluntary before compulsory”, notwithstanding ALs find the SV1 letter
unsettling. Lesley and Judy now have the statistics on the number of SV1 letters and
the OU is predicting around 1000 AL redundancies or loss of duties (meaning the loss
of a module appointment) over 10 regions, mainly at levels 2 and 3. Approximately
4000 SV1 letters have been sent although some ALs will have more than 1 letter.
Lesley and Judy are attending an AL redundancy consultation meeting on 24 Sept –
the replacement for the AL interim agreement still needs to be negotiated. Lesley
CAITLIN
ADAMS,
DEBORAH
DRAKE
AND
LYDIA
RICHARDS
PC, EW,
KS
LK & AL
REPS
LK
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7
7.1
7.2
8
wants us to have February meetings with the OU Faculties to ask if they can notify us
if any big changes over the next 12 months.
Bruce reported that student numbers have not stabilised – progression to levels 2 and
3 is not happening. SSTs have large back logs of student enquiries; students can’t
register for their next OU course as they’ve not had OU advice and they can’t get that
advice as there are too many people in the phone or email queues. An Exec member
has heard that there are 6000 students waiting to be spoken to.
Bruce has asked for SV1 and SV2 letters issue to be on the ALWG agenda – next
meeting 6th October. The SV2 letter statistics are not available yet.
HON SECRETARY’S REPORT - LESLEY
Facility time allocation - Lesley reported that we did the Facility time allocation in 2
parts for the Union year Nov 2013-Nov2014. Next year we will ask Exec members
and Caseworkers about the amount of UCU work they have been doing before we
submit part 2 of the facility time allocation. In the past we have had to guess at the
start of the year about how much people are likely to do over the following 12 months.
Lesley didn’t think an Exec meeting discussion about the allocation to individuals
would be correct when ALs can now claim the DL rate for their allocation of days, but
there’s no reason why the executive should not discuss the method and principles on
which the allocation is made. However, the main problem with the facility time is that
200 days is only about half of what we need.
The AL reps job description says that they should attend the 4 AL reps meetings per
year and also attend OU regional/national events which is why some of them are
given a day’s facility time.
Deb plans to type a set of guidelines for the facility time allocation as there are
several rules.
Kate asked that the second part of the allocation is done earlier as she now has too
many days – we were asked to do the allocation in line with the OU financial year so
the part 1 allocation was from Nov 2013-July 2014 and part 2 is for Aug-Nov 2014.
Lesley said that if someone didn’t have enough in part 1 of the allocation they can be
given a bit more.
Caseworkers who are not on the Exec – 3 non-Exec caseworkers were given an
allocation of days this year.
Philip asked if he can put his allocation of days into something that would provide him
with time off. Judy said it could be translated into DL days to provide cover for the
time he spent on union duties, but to do this one needs to intercept the allocation
when it reaches the faculty.
Kate suggested that any future Casework meetings include a discussion on Facility
time.
Lesley reported that we’re requesting extra days this year to cover all the R13
meetings: John James 10 days, David Knowles 4 days, Lesley Kane 2 days and
Chris Earl 1 or 2 days. We need to ask management what the mechanism for
claiming this is. [post meeting note – we asked about this at the JNC on 29th
September and management will get back to us]
Fixed Term Contracts – Lesley has circulated management proposals for the new
OU FTC Policy – the OU hasn’t taken any of UCU’s concerns on board and so there
are still problems with the proposed new policy. We can raise this at the next JNC
meeting. If we agree a new policy now it could be construed as modifying Section 8
of the FT Regulations.
An Exec member suggested that we could threaten to withdraw from the OU/UCU
agreement if we can’t reach agreement on the new FTC policy.
HON TREASURER’S REPORT - STEPHEN
Stephen reported that our finances have stabilised.
We’ve only got £784 left to claim from the OU where they agreed to pay £8000
towards Pauline’s expenses for 2014. The OU did say that this was a “one-off”
agreement but Stephen or David K will ask if it can happen again in 2015.
New subs rates came into effect on 1st Sept.
Stephen encouraged all Exec members to try to attend more meetings remotely in
order to save the branch money.
DS
DS/PO
JNC?
JNC TEAM
SP/DK
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Annual accounts files have been sent from UCU Head office and so these will be
ready for the AGM on 19 November.
9
STAFF GROUP REPORTS
9.1
AL OFFICER’S REPORT - JUDY
Issue around ALs having to be re-interviewed for the same OU module.
W101 and W102 – the replacement courses for W100 – the OU are saying that ALs
cannot have a contract for both courses as it’s too much work. The AL Salary band
for these replacement courses are 2 bands lower than it was for W100.
The OU should be telling us when there are problems with AL redundancies.
Lydia reported that Lesley and Judy both need commending for the amount of work
they put into the W100 issues.
Lesley reported that we’re planning a collective grievance from the W100 ALs – and
we should ask the W101/W102 ALs to keep a diary of the workload. W200 is due to
be replaced in 2015.
9.2
EQUALITY OFFICER’S REPORT – COSTAS
No report.
9.3
CENTRAL ACADEMIC STAFF OFFICER’S REPORT – JONATHAN
Jonathan reported that we have a serious issue for some members not being able to
carry over annual leave. The rule used to be that you could carry over more than 10
days if you had too much work, to be able to take your annual leave.
Lydia reported that members should be taking their leave – she suggested a
Campaign and/or Spark article called “TAKE YOUR LEAVE.”
9.4
CENTRAL ACADEMIC-RELATED STAFF OFFICER’S REPORT - KATE
Kate reported on the survey for Academic-related staff to prioritise a list of their
issues – the survey has now closed with 174 responses. Priority issues were:
1. Workload.
2. Career Paths and Development.
3. Flexible Working Options.
4. Job Descriptions and Content.
5. Pensions.
Kate recommends that the branch raises the issue of career paths and development
for academic-related staff with OU management, and considers how it can work with
management to identify and implement new routes to more diverse and fulfilling
career paths for these staff.
PC
LR
PC/KS
9.5
REGIONAL/NATIONAL ACADEMIC STAFF OFFICER’S REPORT – PHILIP
No report but he’s worked on a draft OU policy for staff working overseas with Phil
Clarke in HR, the OU seem to be taking too long over this new policy.
The new OU Staff Survey has been launched – please encourage all OU internal staff
to complete it and air their concerns – possible Spark article depending on the OU
survey deadline which is not shown on this page:
http://intranet.open.ac.uk/ouintra/story.aspx?id=27974.
Please note that ALs do not need to complete this survey; the ALs survey will go live
in May 2015.
An Exec member asked about getting the Unit-level data and last time we were told
that it only goes to Heads of Units for them to pass on to their staff if they want to. We
will do a FOI request to get this data if HR management are not forthcoming Pauline
PC
to speak to Nigel. There was a member in IT last time who was very keen to have the
IT unit data and we didn’t get it for him.
The Opaque uni – Liz confirmed that Deb can use the photo she sent in the Spark.
DS
9.6
REGIONAL/NATIONAL ACADEMIC-RELATED STAFF OFFICER’S REPORT
No report.
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10
10.1
10.2
10.3
10.4
11
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
CDSA, Valued Ways of Working and the Learning Competency Framework –
John asked that we put another reminder in the next issue of the Spark that these 2
reflective tools are not compulsory.
ALs and HE Academy Accreditation – Lesley reported that the OU is encouraging
ALs to go for the lowest level of membership which is insulting to Academics to be
described as “demonstrators” or “learning technicians.” Lesley will raise her concerns
with UCU head office and Bruce has asked for it to go on the ALWG agenda.
Major restructuring in LTS – The union was provided with information and it is also
on the intranet: http://intranet.open.ac.uk/ouintra/story.aspx?id=27970
Communications – changes in this unit which we knew nothing until a member in
that unit sent us the info. Pauline has since had discussion with HR management
and the Unit.
DATE OF NEXT MEETING Wednesday 19th Nov Exec meeting 6 @ 10.30am – AGM at 12.30
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