Loading ...UCL staff could go on strike over job cuts
Staff at UCL could go on strike in December if management push ahead with plans to cut jobs, after unanimously voting to go into formal dispute with the college.
The UCL University and College Union, (UCU), whose members
include academics, lecturers, administrators, and librarians, held an Emergency General Meeting on Tuesday November 17th, attended by over 125 people.
If, when the formal redundancy consultation process ends on December 4th, management announce compulsory redundancies, the motion, which passed unanimously, mandates the union “to begin the process of balloting UCL UCU members for both action short of a strike and action including a strike.”
This could mean students’ essays are not marked, or even affect the exam period if the dispute continues into the summer.
At least 10 employees in Information Services Division (ISD) are under threat of compulsory redundancy, and union members believe hundreds more jobs could go.
UCU branch committee member, Jesse Oldershaw, said: “UCL management are engaged in a process of ‘salami slicing’, whereby they propose localised consultations and pick off people in a vulnerable position. The only way this can be stopped is if people start organising in their departments, and if the unions come together in a joint campaign. We won’t allow them to set a precedent for redundancies in other departments and other universities when it is not, in fact, really necessary.”
A lobby of college council took place on Wednesday the 18th, and a letter was handed in from the three trade unions – UCU, UNITE and
UNISON – asking UCL to give a guarantee there would be no compulsory redundancies.
But on Friday November 20th, Human Resources Director, Sarah Brant, responded by re-iterating that UCL would do “everything that it can to avoid redundancies” – stopping short of ruling them out altogether.
She said: “There has been active consultation on all of the recent proposals for change that could lead to redundancy and the consultation regarding possible redundancies within the IS Division is ongoing”.
She also claimed that the unions’ figures were “misleading”, stating that “UCL staff turnover is very low amongst non-clinical academic staff (at 3.7%) and in the year to September 2009, overall staff turnover was 7.4% and amongst researchers it was 12.1%. Both of these latter figures have been close to sector averages for many years.
“The level of redundancies to which you refer…relates largely to those researchers on fixed term funding who cannot be redeployed, and a constant trickle of redundancies within that staff group is somewhat inevitable in a research intensive institution reliant on fixed term research funding.”
UCL say they will “continue to work closely with the unions” in line with the policy framework, but in an email to all members, the UCU Executive Committee of UCL claimed that this commitment was only rhetorical, stating: “We do not believe that UCL is, in practice, engaged in ‘meaningful consultation on all proposals and the avoidance of redundancy wherever possible’ “.
Sean Wallis, UCU branch secretary, said “Their attitude is to talk to the unions and then do whatever they want, regardless. They are putting our members’ jobs in jeopardy, and at the same time risking students’ educational standards.”
Student Michael Chessum said “I think cuts and fees are two sides of the same coin. In calling for fees and making job cuts, UCL are saying they would rather attack their own students and employees than fight the government.”
A second element of discord revolves around UCL’s decision to pay staff a 0.5 per cent salary increase in the absence of a national pay deal. Along with 6 other institutions who have taken this action, UCL has been accused of breaking the protocol of collective bargaining between the unions and UCEA, the university employers’ group.
A UCL spokeswoman said the university “remains committed to national collective bargaining on pay and does not consider that it has breached the UCEA code”.
Since the UCU entered into formal dispute, and in the wake of mounting opposition, UCL’s Director of ISD, Chris Randle, has resigned.
Perhaps a few redundancies are what’s required to keep standards up? I can certainly think of a few lecturers who would be the first to get the chop if I were in charge. Doesn’t matter if they’re a Fellow of the Royal Society – if they’re not doing they’re jobs properly they shouldn’t be here.
I’ve had plenty of lecturers who, whether due to repeated absence or just an appalling lecturing style and lack of clarity, have without doubt compromised the quality of teaching we receive. I say, chuck out the ones that aren’t doing their jobs right and keep the good ones. Isn’t that how it works in other employment sectors?
You’re right – that’s what happens in other employment sectors. However, even when UCL are given proof of how a lecturer is treating students, they’re really reluctant to believe them.
For me, what I’m talking about goes way beyond being late for lectures, bad lecturing etc. What I’m talking about is a lecturer who’s new to UCL and conceals matters such as the existence of Staff-Student Consultative Committees to students for fear that the truth about all his shenanigans be told to his superiors – this is literally one example of many that shows the corruption that exists at UCL.
UCL would rather choose to support such a lecturer than a whole group of students who send an anonymous letter to the Academic Dean because they’re so scared and intimidated by what will happen to them. We were right – we felt the real brunt of it and were ostracised and bullied by some UCL staff just for standing up for a decent education that we had paid thousands of pounds for.
For now, I really can’t say much more, except that the Public interest Disclosure Act had to be used to get the ball-rolling. The ball’s rolling right now but it’s going up a very long, steep hill.
I’ve been told by professors and other professionals that I should have just gone to the media. For now, I’m glad I’ve found the London Student to have some sort of “media voice”. Even when UCL’s own professors go up against UCL with backup from professors from Harvard, UCL really seems to act very defensively – imagine what it’s like as a student who’s still being taught at UCL – pretty scary stuff.
For me, going up against a giant like UCL has felt like an ant going up against an aarmory of aardvarks who’ve been starved for months – I feel they just want to hunt me down and hoover me out of existence so that I vanish and so do UCL’s problems. Anyway, let’s see what happens…