Category: Campaigns

Ballot Results

Posted on by ucuuea3

The UEA UCU branch is in dispute with management over proposed redundancies that have put nearly 500 staff ‘at risk’ and would cut 190 staff from its rolls. The branch ran a three-week ballot for industrial action for its members. This ballot has had the highest turnout UEA UCU has ever achieved in a ballot at 67%. An overwhelming 82% of those voted in favour of strike action with 84% also backing action short of strike.

The branch will be considering next steps in their dispute with UEA management.

Read UCU press statement.

Other press coverage

14/01/2025 – Local ballot opens

Posted on by ucuuea3

A strike ballot will open at the University of East Anglia (UEA) on 14th January 2025 over huge job cuts that are once again being pushed through by management. The ballot will run until Tuesday 4 February and a successful result will pave the way for strike action to begin as soon as next month, unless management rules out compulsory redundancies.

Members are advised to check for emails from the branch committee with relevant information and updates.

UPDATE on the USS and 4Fights Disputes

Posted on by uea

Message to members from a rep:

As you are aware, the two national disputes in HE, on pensions, and on pay, workload, casualisation and equalities, are ongoing. There is a reballot open, from now until the 8th of April, so the time is short. The reballot is to renew the mandate for industrial action, and to get more universities joining the action.

 

Please, please don’t doubt the significance of casting your vote in this reballot! Whatever your view of taking industrial action (so whether you vote yes, or no) the absolutely crucial thing is that you vote, so that we get over the 50% threshold of members taking part. If we don’t achieve this, then our ability to protect our collective interests at local level are hugely damaged, and there are some important local issues facing all of us.

 

Below are some links and summarised information on the 2 disputes, along with key dates for the reballot. 

 

The pensions dispute: The organisation that represents university vice chancellors, Universities UK, voted through their proposed cuts to our pensions (amounting to around 35% for younger members) despite a viable alternative from UCU and despite numerous challenges to the legitimacy of the valuation on which they are based. If you would like a clear and concise explanation of the pensions dispute (and let’s face it, it is hard to get our heads around) I urge you to watch this 30-minute video by Sam Marsh, one of the main UCU negotiators. It really does help.

 

The Four Fights dispute (pay, workload, casualisation, equalities):

You can see a couple of infographics here, with the key issues and demands set out.

 

The employers’ current offer of 1.5% is well below inflation. Based on this and the most recent inflation data, the value of our pay has now fallen over 20% since 2009. With inflation likely to keep increasing in the short to medium term, our salaries will fall further and further short of the cost of living.

 

Employers are failing to take effective or meaningful action to tackle persistent gender and race pay gaps that exist in HE. I also feel it is important (and painful) to acknowledge that this is the case at UEA. Despite positive indications at the end of the last industrial action, in 2019, no real terms change has happened locally, on these issues, or on casualisation.

 

Casualisation is rife within HE: around half of teaching-only staff and 68% of researchers are employed on fixed-term contracts. That figure has barely changed at all in the last three years, despite employers’ claims of progress in this area. UEA remains hugely reliant on casualised staff for teaching and research (and our sister unions continue to fight casualisation on behalf of their members too).

 

The average working week in higher education is now above 50 hours, with 29% of academics averaging more than 55 hours. A UCU survey conducted in December 2020 saw 78% of respondents reporting an increased workload during the pandemic. We know that locally, our own member surveys and the UEA Pulse surveys evidence high levels of concern over workload and wellbeing.

 

Finally, workload, pay inequality and casualisation are directly interrelated. The recent UCU workload survey found that women, BAME and disabled staff were all disproportionately likely to report that their workload had increased, and the same groups are also disproportionately likely to be on casualised rather than permanent contracts. Again, this is directly relevant locally.

 

Voting: Remember, you should receive two ballots in one single envelope: one on pensions (USS) and one on the so-called ‘four fights’ (pay, casualisation, workload, gender & race equality). Anti-trade union laws make it compulsory to have physical rather than electronic ballots. Legally, these are two distinct yet related disputes, for which you are balloted at the same time, so you need to please vote on both. Strike action and action short of a strike are expected to take place at the same time for the two disputes. Please do vote at the earliest opportunity!

 

  • Replacement ballot request form opens: Wednesday 23 March
  • Replacement ballot request form closes: 5pm, Thursday 31 March
  • Last chance for new members to join and be included in the ballot: 12 midnight, Thursday 31 March
  • Last safe posting date: Wednesday 6 April
  • Ballot closes: 5pm, Friday 8 April.

 

A comment on Student Support Services and mental health provision at UEA

Posted on by ucuuea2

A big part of my role as a Disability Liaison Officer is talking to and supporting advisers in my department, and liaising with other colleagues across the university. I am also in contact with a lot of students who have used and continue to access the support available at Student Support Services. There is a familiar pattern to all responses that people have given me about their experiences of SSS. The following are some of my thoughts about where we are and where we need to get to if we want to improve mental health and wellbeing provision at UEA. I write this in the spirit of openness and in the hope that we can begin a university wide dialogue with staff, students and the executive team to find a new way forward in dealing with mental health and wellbeing provision at UEA.

We all acknowledge how hard the staff in Student Support Services work and work in the best interests of the students they seek to help. Staff I have worked with have been incredibly helpful and are passionate about helping students. However, it is clear to all staff and students who engage with SSS that pressures on staff have reached intolerable levels and that SSS is at breaking point. Simply put; they do not have the funding or resources to deal with the increase in demand and the mental health crisis on campus.

To deal with the increased demand, the University introduced a system with significant flaws. Students requesting support now fill in a triage form that is appraised within 24 hours. Students are told they will receive a response within 72 hours, but we are aware of a number of cases when this deadline has been missed. This triage system gives the appearance of engagement, but actually produces no tangible outcome for the student, many of whom are eventually given an appointment months after their initial request for support.

We are told that these forms are triaged according to need, but the system is impersonal and opaque. For some students, filling in a form may help them focus on the kinds of help they want and need. For other students, they need to talk to someone face to face in order to feel that they are being listened too. Metal health is complex and a one-size fits all model of accessing support is not sufficient and in some cases will act as a barrier to seeking much-needed help.

It is clear that staff in SSS are under pressure, with academic staff reporting that their attempts to chase appointments for advisees have revealed that delays are often being caused by staff sickness and colleagues leaving the University at short notice. Students have also reported being seen by staff in SSS who are not specialists in the areas they have sought help. We also know students appointments are being cancelled at the last minute, leaving them in considerable distress.

Simply put it is not clear to students or advisers what can be reasonably expected of the SSS at UEA. It is understandable why SSS say they are not a ‘crisis service’ and that in some cases students should seek help external to the university. Furthermore, it is clear that the university and SSS cannot solve all of the mental health problems students face. Nor should the wider contexts that have resulted in an increase in mental health in society at large be ignored. But the University must recognise it has a duty of care to students (and staff) and that they cannot claim student fees, whilst offering mental health and wellbeing services that are ineffective. Local community services and charities are also incredibly stretched and are not adequately funded to support the large increase in vulnerable adults that a university the size of UEA brings to Norwich.

The pressure that this situation puts on academic staff and support staff as well as those who are in daily contact with students in their accommodation must be considered. It is therefore very worrying that recent statements from SSS claim they are ‘training academics’. We should not be against academic staff having mental health first aid training and advisers should be educated about various mental health conditions that may affect their advisees, but there is a very big difference between being aware and being a qualified therapist or mental health professional. This is often what students want and when they do not get that support from SSS they come back to their advisor for help. When colleagues have raised this with SSS, the burden this places on staff is not adequately recognised.  Colleagues are told to ‘know your professional boundaries, stop the conversation and point them to SSS or their GP’. But if we do this we know they will often be lost in the system and without support for weeks or months. It is very hard for staff to simply switch off and not worry about students they see on a weekly, sometimes daily, basis. It is also very hard for this not to have serious impacts on the mental health and well being of staff being put in this position.

What is needed is an open dialogue between staff, students, and the university about what support services are needed on campus. We need the Executive Team to listen to the concerns of staff in SSS and all staff that work with students on a daily basis. We need to restore the faith of staff and students in the support that SSS can offer before this relationship is irrevocably broken.

We cannot have a SSS that adapts to the funding model it is given. We must have a SSS that adapts to student need and is funded accordingly. This is not a finger pointing exercise. It is about realising there are huge challenges and we need to come together to find solutions that will work. After all, when staff raise concerns about mental health provision on campus it is a demonstration of how much staff at UEA care about the wellbeing of their students and colleagues. When we see something is not working we must work together to find solutions and not get lost in hierarchy and defensiveness. We must act, and we must act now.

Mark Hobbs, Vice President UCU@UEA.

 

**I encourage any colleagues who have been affected by recent events to contact the staff counselling services (https://portal.uea.ac.uk/student-support-service/wellbeing/staff-counselling) or the Education Support Partnership (https://www.ucu.org.uk/educationsupportpartnership) for support. Please do get in touch with the UCU office (ucu.office@uea.ac.uk) with any comments or concerns that you may have on this issue.**

Acclaimed author cancels university appearance over pensions row

Posted on by uea

Prize-winning author Jon McGregor has pulled out of an appearance at the University of East Anglia due to the ongoing dispute over pensions.

 

The author was due to appear at the UEA Spring Literary Festival on Wednesday (7 March), but has said that he will not cross the picket line. Instead, he will headline an evening of readings at the Students’ Union in support of striking staff.

 

The ‘Writers for the Strike’ event will run from 5 – 7pm on Wednesday and will feature readings from leading authors including Sarah Perry and Megan Bradbury, as well as inputs from staff and students. It forms part of the ‘Alternative University’ – a programme of teach-ins and discussions organised by members of the University and College Union (UCU) taking strike action.

 

Author Jon McGregor said: ‘Although I had been very much looking forward to reading at the UEA Spring 2018 Literary Festival, I will not be able to do so while strike action in defence of university staff pensions is ongoing. I fully support the UCU action, and – in common with a number of university vice-chancellors, government ministers, and the opinion pages of the Financial Times – call on Universities UK to return to meaningful negotiations immediately to avoid any further disruption not just to students but to the role universities have to play in the wider cultural life.

‘I have never crossed a picket line in my life, and am not about to start now. Instead, I will be joining staff, students, and writers for an evening of readings and discussion as part of the Alternative University being put on by the Student Union.’

 

The pension dispute centres on proposals to end the defined benefit element of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) – a move which UCU says would leave a typical lecturer almost £10,000 a year worse off in retirement than under the current set-up.

 

In the recent strike ballot UCU members overwhelmingly backed industrial action. Locally, 87% of UCU members at UEA who voted backed strike action on a turnout of 66%.

 

UCU UEA branch spokesperson Ben Little said: ‘We really appreciate the support of all the writers and students who are making Wednesday’s ‘Writers for the Strike’ event possible. Strike action is always a last resort, but the threat to our pensions is so serious we have been left with no choice. We hope the university will seek to minimise any further disruption to students by ensuring that Universities UK commits to proper negotiations to resolve this dispute.’