Transfer your union subs to Direct Debit

Local Organisation – help us be a more effective and organised union. We are trying to reduce our running costs and this means that we may soon be able to reduce our local subs. We have decided not to replace our admin officer, Brenda Mead and we hope to reduce the workload in the office by moving member’s subscriptions to Direct Debit rather than salary deduction. Your departmental rep should have contacted you about this, if not please contact our Organising Officer, Mary Ferrie on mrf@aber.ac.uk

One member's view of the strike on 30th November

UCU Members took strike action in Aberystwyth on 30^th November, picketing four entrances to Penglais Campus and Old College. We saw an enthusiastic turnout from members on the day—starting slowly in the cold, dark morning, but gathering more members as the morning grew lighter. We were especially encouraged by passing support from the public, which this time included a number of vehicles displaying posters from other unions, such as UNISON. We heard early that council offices, Welsh Assembly, the National Library, the police station and Bronglais Hospital all had quite a few of their respective union members picketing their entrances.

At the university entrances more leaflets were handed out than on previous campaigns with a lot of people not only stopping to take the leaflets, but also to offer comments and support for the action. We were also joined by the Guild of Students during the morning who offered strong support for UCU action, also encouraging students to join in the action on the day. By 11am large numbers of people from the different unions began walking to the top of Penglais Hill to gather for a march into and through Aberystwyth town centre.

The march slowly progressed down the hill fronted by a samba drumming band, gradually snowballing as it went. People from picket lines at the university, National Library and Bronglais Hospital all joined the march as it passed, to be met by another large group of people from Council Offices, Welsh Assembly Government, police auxiliary workers and other public sector bodies as it arrived in the town. The march through town saw a great deal of public support with shop staff standing in doorways waving and offering support. This was a near universal response in a small, non-industrial university town that depends very heavily on public sector jobs; not only for those who work in the public sector, but also for the private sector that depends on custom from the public sector and students for their own livelihood.

There is also a report and photo by The Cambrian News at:

http://www.cambrian-news.co.uk/news/i/20905/

What are we working on for our members? November 2011

1. Negotiations: dealing with Management and getting the best possible outcome for our members. 

Staff Development and Performance Review:

Members have raised concerns with UCU about the recent ‘roll out’ of the SDPR following the CDSAP training sessions.  At a recent meeting with Management we were informed that the scheme had been carefully planned by AU and it was agreed that there are still some issues to resolve. Although Trades Unions have been involved in the discussions regarding SDPR the scheme has not been formally ‘signed off’ or approved (although a staff development system is welcomed by UCU).

It has been confirmed that the traditional ‘3 days staff development allowance’ has been removed from the university website. Management informed us that they felt the 3 days allowance was restrictive and it is hoped that with the implementation of the SDPR staff will be permitted more than 3 days, where appropriate. Discretionary points on the salary scale will be linked to SDPR in the future.

Management have agreed to review the issues raised in the SDPR training sessions and ensure that members’ queries are addressed. There are still some concerns regarding the scope of the reviews and we would encourage members to feed back any issues to ucu-aber@aber.ac.uk.

Facilities time:  At the moment there is no formal mechanism at AU to allow union representatives time off for union duties. UCU have presented a draft document as a basis for an agreement and will be working with a Management to finalise a document. 

Trade Union Recognition agreement: AU and UCU are in agreement that the UCU trade union recognition arrangement is out of date http://www.aber.ac.uk/en/hr/pandp/ucu/ We have presented Management with a new draft document as a starting point and will be working to finalise an agreed document.

Occupational Health: - the Occupational Health service has been reviewed and UCU members had concerns that the service was being downgraded and/or may be less objective and balanced as a result of the changes. UCU felt that if there were changes to the service the unions should have the opportunity to comment on the service specification. Currently there is an interim service while a procurement of a new contract with a suitable provider is being finalised. UCU were reassured that the  new service would provide a better level of support for staff suffering from long term absence due to sickness. UCU would welcome comments from members on their experience of the Occupational Health service.

Academic Promotions: A working group has been established between UCU and the management to review the academic promotions procedure, with special attention paid to the lecturer-senior lecturer promotion. Rather than modify existing procedures which both UCU and management recognise as flawed and opaque, an eniterly new process is to be developed that is more transparent and seeks to reward academics for teaching, research and administrative leadership. A two day workshop was held on the 24^th and 25^th November with UCU and University management representatives. The outcome of this event has been presented at a Heads of Department meeting and a draft report will be developed and presented to the UCU executive.

Redundancy Committee: A redundancy committee had been set up by the University to discuss potential redundancies, but the number of posts at risk of has now fallen below the statutory limit requiring consultation (20).

Voluntary Severance:  UCU has proposed the implementation of an ‘honest broker’ (outside of the department and HR) to deal with initial voluntary severance requests.  Management accepted the UCU proposal (which ensures confidentially) and agreed to present the document to the University Executive (senior management) for discussion.

2. Helping members with workplace problems and attending meetings with members.   Joan Williams (orw@aber.ac.uk) is our personal case work co-ordinator.  Members experiencing work place problems should contact Joan in the first instance and a case worker will be appointed.

3. Membership:  aiming to increase our membership is one of our main priorities for the forthcoming year. We want UCU to be a stronger force to negotiate better terms and conditions for our members. We need more members, departmental and deputy reps. if you are interested, please contact Ursula Byrne (Membership Secretary) on uub@aber.ac.uk. You can encourage non-members to join up via the UCU website: https://join.ucu.org.uk/

4. Local Organisation – help us be a more effective and organised union. We are trying to reduce our running costs and this means that we may soon be able to reduce our local subs. We have decided not to replace our admin officer, Brenda Mead and we hope to reduce the workload in the office by moving member’s subscriptions to Direct Debit rather than salary deduction. Your departmental rep should have contacted you about this, if not please contact our Organising Officer, Mary Ferrie on mrf@aber.ac.uk

Joining the local executive involves attending one meeting per month. The work can be as much or as little as you are comfortable with. UCU needs you!

Why are we striking and working to contract? An update from a local UCU member.

As you will know, changes to the USS scheme were imposed on October 1.  UCU and the employers' representatives will meet in the December Joint Negotiating Committee to establish a working group to consider future changes to the scheme.  A preparatory meeting was scheduled to be held in November with a JNC paper on "Changes to Pension Tax Rules" on the agenda.  Whilst this is unlikely to be of interest to most UCU members, the impact of the tax law changes is a £18000 hit on the average VC salary, so the employers' representatives may be keen to amend USS rules to lessen the blow on high earners.  Meanwhile, all USS members have been saddled with scheme changes that are disadvantageous when compared to the current proposals for public sector pensions (including TPS, which applies to many UCU members in post-1992 institutions).  The key disadvantages are these:

• Pensions based on contributions made after October 1 are to be uprated by a capped CPI.  To refresh your memory of the cap, pensions will increase with CPI up to 5%, but if CPI exceeds 5% then the pension increase will be 5% + half of the excess, with an absolute limit of 10% (which would be reached if CPI got to 15%). This capping is peculiar to USS and is not proposed for public sector pensions.  It is not a feature of the recommendations of the Hutton Report.
• Capping will also affect the accumulation of revalued earnings in the CARE section of USS (i.e. as enjoyed by anyone joining after October 1).  In contrast, in the public sector schemes revaluation is to be at the rate of growth of average earnings, which historically is better than CPI, let alone the USS-capped CPI.
• The annual pension payable in the CARE section of USS is revalued earnings divided by 80.  In the public sector they will be divided by 60.  USS members will get a lump sum, which is not part of public service schemes, but this effectively leaves the divisor at 68 - considerably worse than the public sector equivalent.

The net effect is that USS pensions are likely to be much worse than those available in the public sector schemes.  Our employers' representatives argue that this is necessary to ensure the long term viability of USS.  UCU believes that the changes go beyond those necessary to maintain viability and instead are aimed at reducing employers' costs in the longer term, to the detriment of members.

Our employers are refusing to negotiate further on this imposed "solution" - make sure you join with us on the 30th November to get the employers to return to the negotiating table and negotiate a fair resolution to this dispute - and a fair pension for academics and academic related staff.

30th Novermber - Take Action.


Please stand up for your pension rights by supporting your union in the strike on 30 November.  The unions negotiating position on protecting USS will be strengthened immeasurably in the days after the day of action if we can show that the strike was well supported.

Strike materials can be collected from the UCU office (C63 Hugh Owen) on Monday 28^th and Tuesday 29^th (please phone Mary Ferrie in advance on 1519). Contact ucu-aber@aber.ac.uk if you would like to strengthen the picket line. Please do your best to lend support to the March and Rally in support of the action by UCU and other public sector unions.

Start off in the layby at the top of Penglais Hill by Cwrt Mawr (assemble at 11, for an 11.30am start). Route: Penglais Road; Northgate Street; Thespian Street; Alexandra Road; Mill Street; Bridge Street; Great Darkgate Street; North Parade.

A rally will be held at the Morlan centre where we shall have speakers representing staff from schools and the university, the health service, and trade unions,. Please come and join us, the more of us there are, the louder our voice. We will be heard. Encourage your friends and family, your work colleagues to come and join our march for these issues affect us all.

Interested in Freedom of Information?  UCU have recently submitted a number of FOI requests as a way of receiving accurate and timely information from Management. You can view all FOIs relating to Aberystwyth University here: http://www.whatdotheyknow.com/body/aberystwyth_university  Please contact the local association on ucu-aber@aber.ac.uk for further information. 

Hi, thanks for stopping by and welcome to Aberystwyth University Local Association of the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) blog site. Here we hope to keep members and others up to date with local issues affecting UCU members and those eligible to join. Blogs posted here will be authored by various members of the UCU Executive at Aber, and all blogs posted on this site are the opinion of the author and may not reflect either Local Association policy, or UCU policy nationally. Check back here regularly for news of local happenings at Aberystwyth University that affect staff, particularly academic staff and academic-related staff. If you wish to contribute get in touch by posting to ucu-staff@aber.ac.uk. Please note this is not our “official” site, which can be found at: http://www.aber.ac.uk/ucu-aber/ - there you will find lists of local representatives, branch meeting dates and contact details. Not yet a member? Go to www.ucu.org.uk/join<http://www.ucu.org.uk/join> .