Current campaigns

Campaigns for 2024-5:

  • after the appointment of the new Vice Chancellor, to resume negotiations for an Outer London/Hertfordshire salary weighting for all staff
  • reform the EQUATE process for academic promotions to ensure equity and fair treatment
  • build strength in union membership and representation across all Schools – join us!

Campaigns for 2023-4:

Outer-London Weighting

We negotiated with management about a payment of an outer-London weighting allowance of £3750 per annum to all staff, in order to address the higher cost of living in and around London. The Royal Veterinary College, which has a campus in Hatfield, offers a London weighting to their staff, so we claim the same.

We received 100 responses from members about their difficulties with cost of living.

EQUATE process

Members have reported inequalities and major issues with the EQUATE process for promotion. The current process is not fit for purpose, causing huge amounts of work and anxiety for members. In particular, the amount of written evidence and the form of the spreadsheet is discriminatory towards staff with dyslexia, ADHD or who are neurodivergent.

Please send us your experiences of EQUATE. We will be drawing together the main issues and bringing them to the management, asking for major reform in the process.

Email uhucuoffacc@outlook.com

Campaigns for 2023:

Five Point Action Plan sent to the VC

The UH Staff Opinion Survey of November 2022 showed that only 25% of staff think the University Leadership Team – your Executive – listens to and responds to their views. This is 20% less than the HEI sector average of 45%.

Since 75% of staff do not think that your Executive is listening or responding, we believe urgent action is required to address a crisis of confidence in the University’s leadership. Words will not suffice. Instead, listening and responding needs to be judged by the quality of the decisions your Executive makes.

Our Five-Point Action Plan for starting to address the crisis is below. It brings together some of the issues we have been raising with senior managers. We believe it is time for these issues to be addressed.

We therefore call on you and your Executive:

  1. To pay London Fringe Allowance of £3,750 per annum
  • in order to address the higher cost of living in and around London and repair UH recruitment and retention rates
  1. To cut workload hours by 10% across the board
  • in order to begin addressing the longstanding problem of increasing workloads
  1. To offer permanent contracts to active visiting lecturers who want them
  • In order to begin to reduce casualisation, reward hard-working VLs and address increasing workloads
  1. To commission an independent review of the recruitment of international students
  • in order to address the numerous complaints about its mismanagement
  1. To end the compulsory recording of seminars
  • in order to begin restoring pedagogic autonomy and reducing micromanagement

WORKLOADS

  • At UH, a massive increase in the recruitment of postgraduate students has brought the already serious issue of workloads to the point of unprecedented crisis
  • The UH StAR Review has been a shambles, increasing all our admin workloads

CASUALISATION

  • At UH, there are about 2750 currently registered VL staff, of whom around 1500-2000 are active. They are at the sharp end of poor pay, workloads and job insecurity
  • To ease workloads for everyone, they could be offered permanent contracts instead of the precarious ones they’re on now
  • This isn’t unrealistic. At the Open University last month, thanks to UCU campaigning, 4,800 previously casualised associate lecturers were transferred to permanent contracts. So it can be done if there’s the will to do it
  • UH continues to refuse to grant union facility time for one VL to join the UHUCU Executive Committee to represent VLs.

EQUALITY

At UH, the current gender and ethnicity pay gaps are as follows:

  • The median (or ‘typical’) hourly pay of women is 11.21% lower than men’s. The mean (or average) hourly pay is 10.3% lower
  • The median (or ‘typical’) hourly pay of BAME staff is 5.08% lower than white staff. The mean (or average) hourly pay is 8.47% lower
  • UH does not appear to have published any disability pay gap data.

Warm/hot desking 

Our members strongly object to the move to warm/hot desking across the university, a move imposed on staff without prior consultation.  

They object to the loss of their own private work space making it difficult for them to work effectively on campus; to the loss of storage space for the materials they need to enable them to do so; and to the loss of security that results from multiple access to rooms. As winter approaches, they also have Covid health and safety concerns over the shared use of work spaces. 

Automatic recording of seminars 

Our members also strongly object to the automatic recording of seminars, another decision imposed on staff without prior consultation.  

This blanket policy is bad for student attendance, student engagement and the autonomy of lecturers to decide how best to run their seminars. Recording of seminars must be left to lecturers to decide on a ‘opt in’ basis and not on an automatic basis that makes it as good as mandatory.  

Lack of consultation 

The failure to consult about decisions that affect staff in directly personal ways is simply unacceptable.