DRAFT OUBUCU/EC/2014-6-25 minutes
www.ucu.open.ac.uk
OPEN UNIVERSITY BRANCH OF UNIVERSITY & COLLEGE UNION
MINUTES OF THE EXECUTIVE MEETING HELD ON 25 JUNE 2014, 12NOON IN B232,
WILSON B BLOCK, WALTON HALL
Present:
John Bennett, Chris Bollom, Pauline Collins, Judy Ekins, Lesley Kane, Meridian (Chair),
Peter Piper and Kate Servant.
Remote
participants
Bruce Heil, David Houpt, Hilary Partridge, Stephen Pattinson, Philip O’Sullivan,
Liz White by MS Lync online meeting.
Roger Walters & John Peters by phone.
Apologies:
Jeni Aldridge, Costas Athanasopoulos, Eric Bowers, Gill Clough, David Knowles & Eric
Wade.
ACTION
1
MINUTES OF THE LAST MEETING
Agreed as a true record.
2
CONFIDENTIALITY OF MINUTES
No items were marked as confidential so the 29 April Exec minutes will now go on the
branch website: http://ucu.open.ac.uk/meetings.
3
MATTERS ARISING
Regional/national academic-related staff officer – Liz White was co-opted in May
2014 and so we welcomed Liz to her first Exec meeting.
OU Management Guidance on Staff Use of Recording Devices at Meetings –
Whilst feed-back was considered, not all concerns raised by the union led to the
changes suggested and amendments to OU guidance – Pauline to raise these
concerns again at her next regular meeting with the Director of HR.
Pauline’s full-time Presidency – Pauline will be the branch President, 5 days per
week from 1st August 2014.
MEMBERSHIP STATS
ALs now shown separately in the membership breakdown.
Deb was asked to compare membership in each staff category, so what percentage
of OU Academics are UCU members and the same for Ac-Related, Research and AL
staff.
Age profile – Deb to do an OU staff age profile to compare the age profile of our
members. Roger asked if the stats for AL members could differentiate between those
who are members of another branch and those for whom we are the primary branch.
4
5
PC
DS
DS
PRESIDENT’S REPORT
Pauline sent a President’s bulletin email to all OU UCU members on Friday, 20th
June, with an update on the East Grinstead closure.
Agile working policy – Pauline attended the launch and we must monitor the
implementation of this new policy. Managers might use it to renege on long standing
working arrangements. Ask members to send feedback on “agile” working requests.
Pauline gave an update on East Grinstead.
Roger commented on the letter published in the Guardian:
www.theguardian.com/education/2014/jun/18/open-university-regional-offices-review.
30th November 2014 is to be the official closing date of St James’s House. Flexible
working options, whilst considered on an individual basis, are not being offered to all
members of staff. There is not going to be a smaller alternative office in the local
area. There are relocation concerns for some staff as the future of the other English
regions is subject to the OU’s “analysis”. Staff tutors working arrangements will
remain the same as they are now, unless re-negotiated with Deans.
Philip commented on our tactics and the need to focus more on the impact to OU
students and student support being delivered from the regions.
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OUSA’s current stance is neutral base on the belief that the region 13 closure will not
have a detrimental effect on OU students. .
Lesley asked about staff being relocated, are they being put onto FTCs? Are there
R13 staff on FTCs – these people have to be treated the same as permanent OU
staff.
R13 business case – Lesley reported that the OU branch of UCU has a right to see it
when Pauline’s email to R13 members said it’s to remain confidential.
Update: UCU have now received the rationale and case for the decision to close the East
Grinstead Regional Centre (Business Plan) and we also had a detailed conversation with Alan
Burrell, Head of Estates. Some of this information remains confidential and we are currently
in the process of agreeing how much of the detail the University will release to all staff. I do
not expect this information to be as detailed as you may want it to be, but we have asked
that at the very least, you have key details about the process and considerations in relation to
seeking alternative premises, financial implications and services provided by East
Grinstead. I hope to have this information for you by next week.
6
6.1
6.2
6.3
Pauline reported that some parts of the OU has said that the business case contains
commercially sensitive information and so cannot be shared with staff. We’ve asked
for those parts to be removed so that we can share the info with our members.
Pauline is also getting legal advice. The business case doesn’t contain as detailed a
cost/benefit analysis as expected by East Grinstead staff.
Kate asked how student support will be affected by the R13 closure. There are lots of
WH staff who don’t know how important the regions are to student support.
Campaign Regional reps briefing and letter (written by Lydia) not yet sent out to
DS
regional reps – Deb to find the document written by Wendy Maples, giving a list of
arguments to keep the regions open. Kate volunteered to be a critical reader of this
document, as someone who doesn’t know all about the current student support
arrangements.
Bruce reported that there will be another R13 discussion at the next OU Council
meeting, but the closure should not have any impact on OU students.
HON SECRETARY’S REPORT - LESLEY
At the last Concordat meeting, HR said that discussions with UCU were ongoing, but
that they didn’t think we would reach agreement on open ended contracts for researchers
in the near future. The quantity of casework to do with FTCs seems to be increasing, and
the use of strategic funding described as “external” as a justification for using fixed term
contracts is becoming a recurring theme. We are getting some very unpleasant cases
including a PI who is being dismissed in spite of the project on which he is PI continuing.
Anecdotal evidence suggests that some HoUs no longer regard the end of a fixed term
contract as a redundancy. Lesley doesn’t think we are likely to see an improvement
without the threat of bringing Employment Tribunal cases for permanency.
Kate reported that she is currently dealing with 3 FTC cases where all of them should
have been made permanent: two are leaving and the other one is hoping to have
their contract extended.
FTC group: Lesley suggested an extended meeting of this group. The FTC policy
review group was Lesley, Gill Clough and Ben Monks – there are no notes from any
LK/GC
of these meetings – can Lesley, Gill or Ben provide an update to the Exec?
A member emailed recently to say that all the Regional Student Services vacancies
on the OU intranet are FTCs to July 2015.
Redeployment - Still waiting for a response from Fraser., but at some point we need
to try and progress this even if no response in received. The climate has deteriorated
over the rights of staff on fixed term contracts, and Lesley is increasingly concerned
that the reform of the white slip may become a casualty.
AL Terms and conditions - The ALWG couldn’t reach an acceptable agreement on
a replacement for a sentence in the AL code of conduct about turnaround time for
student queries. We are now seeking to agree the other changes previously agreed
at ALWG. The AL Terms and conditions on Tutorhome is a version that was not
agreed by UCU – Lesley will send the agreed version (at last ALWG) and get this
LK/JNC
raised at the next JNC meeting.
Lesley reported that we need to look at the big picture over the AL contract – 4 years
of negotiations that cost the branch, £11,700 in expenses. The implementation of the
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AL contract has deteriorated – where are we going, how will it be financed?
Communicate with our members. Campaign focus needs to be sorted out. Lesley
reported on 2 successful campaigns at SOAS:
AL REPS
Pay campaign that UCU ran on behalf of fractional staff in the SOAS (School of Oriental and
African Studies), where the fractional teaching staff had problems that are similar to those of
ALs in some respects. The links below will take you to the Facebook page of their campaign
and to a parliamentary Early Day Motion supporting them.
www.facebook.com/SOASFractionalsForFairPlay (link will only work if you’ve got a Facebook
account.) http://www.parliament.uk/edm/2013-14/1309
Judy reported that the current AL contract was created in 2002 and since then the OU
has wasted our time, involvement of ACAS and this has achieved nothing. The OU is
now scrapping the AL interim agreement, agreed in 2012 and extended to 2013.
Pauline asked that the AL negotiations stay focussed. The AL reps committee had a
discussion about the email communication with Keith Zimmerman and talked about
the possibility of industrial action. Pauline and Bruce attended a meeting on 23rd
June with Senior OU managers to discuss group sizes and the interim agreement – it
was agreed that more up to date data would be provided to UCU. Once we have the
data from the OU then someone needs to analyse it as there’s possibly 300 AL jobs
at risk.
Guidance on Group sizes – what can we salvage from the AL interim agreement?
Bruce reported that there will be new guidance to Staff Tutors on group sizes and the
OU will consult with UCU on this guidance. Lesley is writing a JNC paper on these
issues.
Judy stated that we don’t need to focus on the number of jobs at risk – focus on the
principals: no AL redundancies until group sizes fall below 80%. Large groups (100129%) should not be given to ALs year on year.
ALWG
Pauline suggested that once we have the OU data, the ALWG team get together for a
detailed discussion and decide how to progress. Does the Exec agree in principle to
an industrial action ballot on these issues should a satisfactory response not be
forthcoming? There was a vote and it was a unanimous yes. ALWG team: Bruce
Heil, Judy Ekins, David Knowles and Pauline Collins with Lesley Kane as alternate.
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HON TREASURER’S REPORT - STEPHEN
Stephen reported that our finances have improved by cutting back on the number of
meetings held. UCU Head office needs to know if we want to implement the increase
in local subs that was passed in a motion at the AGM, Nov 2013. Stephen thought
that we could postpone the increase but David has advised that we go ahead:
“I think the increase should go ahead. We’ll have to pay most of Pauline’s expenses for the
rest of the year, and I doubt if we will finish the year with a surplus. There’s no sign of interest
rates improving immediately, and any increase will be very slow, so I can’t see that we’ll be
getting significantly more money in.”
Exec agreed that we implement the increase so our subs rates from 1st September
2014 will be:
ANNUAL EARNINGS
£60,000 and above
£40,000 - £59,999
£30,000 - £39,999
£20,000 - £29,999
£10,000 - £19,999
£5,000 - £9,999
Below £5,000
Total Subscription
£27.88
£25.31
£22.37
£20.28
£12.64
£5.05
£2.67
The OU regional campaign have asked the Exec to agree a budget of £5000 – it was
decided to approve £1000 budget now but agree the remaining money once the Exec
has seen a breakdown of the costs.
8
STAFF GROUP REPORTS
8.1
AL OFFICER’S REPORT - JUDY
There has been more disquiet about PIPs (Personal Improvement Plan) and threats
of imposing a PIP for one breach of the AL code of conduct. This is worrying as the
new redundancy policy for insufficient student numbers, includes them under the first
DS/SP
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criteria, Discipline. The OU wants to implement the new AL redundancy criteria in
October 2014. There is no appeal against a PIP.
Some Staff Tutors are also ALs so they are in direct competition with the ALs they
manage for AL contracts.
UCU can’t negotiate on redundancy criteria so Judy asked how can we stop the OU
from implementing the new criteria. We want to protect ALs with multiple
appointments from multiple losses within 12 months. Lesley is also writing a JNC
paper on this issue and David Houpt asked that it be circulated to the Exec.
Meridian reported that PIPs are informal for OU internal staff and so they are being
used in a more formal way for AL staff.
Bruce reported on the Group Tuition Review.
W100 update – there was a meeting with Lydia on 23rd June – 1 UCU member has
been deemed “unappointable” to the new replacement module. Judy will be appealing
on their behalf. The new module interviews are arduous and include unnecessary
tasks, the new AL person specification is over complicated. The Faculty of Business
and Law doesn’t have enough ALs for the new module and is advertising externally.
8.2
EQUALITY OFFICER’S REPORT - COSTAS
8.3
CENTRAL ACADEMIC STAFF OFFICER’S REPORT – JONATHAN
Pauline has accessed the data requested by Jonathan – please send to Deb for
future reference.
PC
8.4
CENTRAL ACADEMIC-RELATED STAFF OFFICER’S REPORT - KATE
Kate reported on the survey she has developed for Academic-related staff to prioritise
a list of their issues – this was part of the President’s bulletin email and will also
appear in the Spark. http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/2F27X3C
8.5
REGIONAL/NATIONAL ACADEMIC STAFF OFFICER’S REPORT – PHILIP
No report but he is working on the OU regional campaign and doing lots of casework,
Philip has 4 new cases to add to the branch casework log.
8.6
REGIONAL/NATIONAL ACADEMIC-RELATED STAFF OFFICER’S REPORT
No report.
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9.1
ANY OTHER BUSINESS
Working Class Movement Library request to affiliate to them – Pauline is keen that
we do support this worthy cause. They are based in Salford and Bruce and Hilary
volunteered to visit. It was agreed that we pay the affiliation fee for 1 year and then
review that next year. Further information at: www.wcml.org.uk/
The Spark – Lesley asked if we want to do another issue of the Spark before the
summer – over half the articles are still current and the deadline was 25th April for this
issue. We sent out the R13 Spark special on 31st March so the last standard issue
was 27th February. We need these 2 items and then it could go to the Exec for
approval:
 Region 13 update – Deb has asked John James to write this.
 AL issues – Deb has asked Bruce to write something.
From the last ROCC meeting, June 2014:
9.2
PO
BH/HP
DS/SP
JJ
BH
Agreed to get the current issue finished and sent out to members as it is, in PDF format but
then work on the next issue using *Mailchimp with links through to the new branch blog. The
best 5 or 6 articles from the current issue of the Spark can go onto the blog and be
unpublished until the next issue is ready. Kate’s Ac-related article to be one of these.
Question from Deb: Can we please agree a new approval process for the Spark? It doesn’t have to be this painful
or take so long,it could be checked at ROCC meetings or by email; passed to the President and Hon Sec (or whole
Exec) for final approval, limited to x working days and then issued to members 4 times per year or more frequently if
we use the *new email format and are serious about the blog. (*Deb will send that email with these minutes.)
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DATE OF NEXT MEETINGS
Tuesday 23rd Sept Exec meeting 5 @ 10.30am – branch meeting at 12.30
Wednesday 19th Nov Exec meeting 6 @ 10.30am – AGM at 12.30
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