Posts Tagged ‘redundancies’

Staff at King’ College London (KCL) will for the first time ever take a vote on strike action in reaction to proposed job cuts.

Unless negotiations with management produce a change in the college’s position that 205 jobs must be cut, members of the University and College Union (UCU), the lecturers union, will open a ballot for industrial action this Thursday (March 4th.)

Jim Wolfreys, chair of KCL UCU branch, told the Times Higher Education supplement: “People feel there is no alternative.” He claimed that senior management were “not listening” and said that he was “expecting a high turnout and a ‘yes’ vote”.

Wolfreys continued: “There is more anger than I have ever seen at King’s. There is a sense that management are not in control of the situation… We have never had a local ballot for action. That, as much as anything else, is an indication of the strength of feeling.”

The School of Arts and Humanities is particularly affected by the college’s plans to cut back. All 220 academic staff have been told they will have to re-apply for their jobs.

The college’s plans include abolishing the UK’s only chair in palaeography – the study of ancient handwriting – and making redundant several high profile scholars from the Department of Philosophy.

There has been outcry from academic peers in London, across the country and internationally.
Academics are arguing that any loss of jobs at the college would damage KCL’s reputation internationally and “lead to an increase in workloads of those who survive the cull and inevitably impact most seriously on students”.

KCL insist that the final decisions have not been taken regarding any potential redundancies, and won’t be until the end of the consultation with staff.

A spokesperson said the college was “extremely disappointed” about the decision to ballot for industrial action.

“Following discussions between UCU and King’s on 22 February, the college formally reiterated a desire to respond to the concerns raised by the union and to continue discussions. The college believes a ballot on industrial action before these discussions have concluded is ill advised, particularly during a time of financial strain.

“There is particular concern that industrial action will impact on exams and that our students, who have worked so hard towards these, will suffer as a result.”

The UCU claims that the college has £180 million in reserves, and has attacked the decision to proceed with the acquisition of the east wing of Somerset House at a cost of £20 million.

King’s has responded that this has been acquired on a leasehold, funded largely by a specific government grant and a £20 million fundraising campaign.

The ballot at King’s comes as universities nationwide make cut backs in the wake of funding reductions. After a vote on industrial action at Leeds University, progress was made in negotiations; at Sussex University staff are currently balloting.

On Saturday staff and students came together for a ‘teach-in’ at King’s called ‘Take Back Education’, where speakers like Terry Eagleton made the case for opposing cuts in universities.

King’s College London (KCL) faces mounting opposition to proposed cuts in the School of Arts and Humanities including the sacking of several internationally renowned academics.

There has been outcry in the Department of Philosophy over the forced retirement of Professor Charles Travis and the firing of two lecturers Dr. Wilfried Meyer-Viol and Professor Shalom Lapin, also Director of Graduate Studies.

The latter wrote online that he had been “summoned without warning” by Head of Arts and Humanities Jan Palmorski and told that his “position would be redundant as of September [2010]”.

He also claims that in May 2009 he had turned down a Chair in the Hebrew University Computer Science Department, after being assured that his job at King’s was secure, by Palmowski and Head of Department David Papineau.

The news has prompted a group of mostly graduate students to compose a petition letter, with so far over 1,500 signatories, which they will present to management on February 8th. It expresses their belief that the rational for the redundancies “has no standing” and that “there are alternatives other than redundancy” which could be pursued.

They also call the college’s claim that students will not be adversely affected by the proposed changes “simply false”.

A letter of opposition signed by academics from UCL, among other universities, to the King’s Head of Humanities, Principal Rick Trainor, and Vice-Principal, Keith Hoggart said: “Such a savage reduction of staff numbers through compulsory redundancy removes any appearance of job security for academics at King’s. The best candidates in the humanities will shun the institution; and those of strong standing now in post will all seek to leave. The reorganization will succeed in the aim of making a once great institution manifestly mediocre.”

Referring to the Research Assessment Exercise (RAE), which gave King’s Philosophy Department an excellent rating, they claimed that management’s action “seems wilfully to ignore the intellectual strengths and organization of the disciplines within the school.”

It further claimed that KCL was treating the three academics “callously” and criticised what it called “the reckless manner in which you have sought to deal with individuals and their careers, seemingly without regard for proper procedure; or due concern for individual welfare.”

A further letter of protest was sent yesterday (February 1st) signed by 335 academics from universities across the world, causing more embarrassment to King’s.

They described themselves as “aghast”at the proposals and urged the college to“reconsider your plans”, saying that dismissing the senior researchers “will be disastrous for KCL’s international reputation.” London Student was unable to independently verify claims that Prof. Jonathan Ginzburg, Senior Lecturer in the Department of Computer Science, has also been made redundant.

Meanwhile a series of high profile academics have penned personal letters to King’s.  One, Harvard Professor Stephen Pinker, sent a letter particularly in defence of Professor Lapin, warning that “To give the boot to a scholar like Lappin is an act of madness for an institution that, according to your website, aims to be a “prestigious university” offering “an intellectually rigorous environment supported by welcoming and caring traditions.”

As well as the Departments of Computer Science and Philosophy, there are concerns about cuts in the Department of Music and the likely closure of the Paleography department.

Peter Ridley, Philosophy Graduate Research Student Representative and creator a Facebook group with over 2,200 members – ‘Stop Philosophy Faculty Cuts at King’s’ – told London Student that “a freeze on all new appointments to the College or to the School; a pay freeze for all members of the College or School and potential pay cuts to all staff”, as options he believes were not considered openly before the redundancies were announced.

The Times reported that King’s was seeking to make 22 academics redundant in Arts and Humanities, while KCL lecturers union, UCU – who have called an emergency meeting for February 10th – estimate that 205 posts are currently “at risk” and up to 533 jobs could be lost overall.

A King’s College spokesperson said KCL was “prioritising our own student communications at the moment”, so was not able to comment.

:::::::::::::: UPDATE :::::::::::::::

Jim Wolfreys, UCU representative at KCL told Times Higher Education that King’s was pursuing “draconian measures”.

They also claimed that King’s will in total cut 205 jobs across 13 departments.

An Extraordinary General Meeting (EGM) of the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU) branch at UCL took staff one step closer to a possible strike with a unanimous vote in favour of balloting members for industrial action.

The vote on January 28th came in response to the recent announcement of academic redundancies to be made within the Faculty of Life Sciences, which houses such Departments as Psychology and Neuroscience.

Another motion was carried unanimously to oppose what UCU believes are “fixed term [staff] contracts” being reintroduced “by the back door.”

The £1.5 million cuts to Life Sciences’ salary budget were announced despite the Faculty contributing positively by some £23 million to UCL’s central operating budget, according to UCU sources.

It is anticipated that cuts at such a level will cause a high number of job losses, and could threaten class sizes, or even entire courses, depending on where they are made.

Despite this, one employee of Management Systems present told the EGM that six more management posts were being recruited for.

An amendment to the motion to call for a freeze on all recruitment to UCL fell to a narrow majority, due in part to fears that vacant but necessary positions within Library Services would then not be filled.

One UCU member described the cuts as an “attack on all staff” and “unprecedented in college history.”

The Director of the Faculty, Mary Collins, reportedly told staff after an EGM, held two weeks previously, that “voluntary redundancies” were to be made.
Members of the Faculty voiced alarm that these job losses were not “voluntary” in reality, as members of staff are individually selected for voluntary redundancy packages, often on the basis of how much money they generate through such criteria as research grants.

One member present said staff selected for the voluntary packages are made aware that failing to accept voluntary pay-offs will lead them to be laid off on a compulsory basis.

Another member from the Information Services Division told the EGM that he had in fact been offered more money in a compulsory package than was offered for him to leave voluntarily.

Alarm remains high within the union that hundreds of jobs are potentially on the line as UCL’s plans to cut £20 million from its £350 million operating budget.

 The planned cuts remain three times the level of cuts imposed on UCL by a reduction to the Higher Education Funding Council of England (HEFCE)’s budget, and in spite of an annual turnover of over £600 million according to the university’s own financial documents.

London Student has learnt that UCL Council recently voted in favour of forming a Redundancy Committee, which is necessary in order to dismiss academics from their posts.

It is not known how the two UCLU Sabbatical Officers who sit on the Council -  Josh Blacker, for Education, and Andrew Caddy, for Finance & Democracy – voted.

UCLU officially maintains a clear policy of opposition to operating cuts at UCL but the “ex-officio” status on the Council of the two Sabbatical Officers means they are neither accountable to the Union for the way they vote, nor obliged to follow the line of any democratically chosen UCLU policy.