Posts Tagged ‘UCL’

Unionised staff at UCL have called off proposed strike action after an agreement was made between UCL management and the University and College Union (UCU) regarding compulsory redundancies.

The agreement comes after weeks of negotiations between UCL and UCU representatives, which finally resulted in a unanimous vote by the UCU to end its dispute.

This is a major achievement for UCU, who see their success as a precedent for dealing with hundreds of planned redundancies at universities across the UK, including those at Leeds and King’s College London: “We believe that this decision represents a victory: for common sense, for academic freedom and for our students. Most of all it is a victory due to all our members who supported their union in our campaign to stop the cuts and who voted for industrial action.”

As a result, UCL have scrapped plans to establish a Redundancy Committee for the Faculty of Life Sciences, which still faces £1.5 million in cuts, but there will be no redundancies in Life Science administration, Registry or Museums and Collections. There have also been assurances that no redundancies will be made in the Library, although consultation is ongoing.

However, the negotiations fell short of guaranteeing the jobs of Modern Languages and History of Medicine staff, with at least four members of staff facing “redeployment” according to the UCU. There is also potential further action of ‘Less Favourable Treatment’ around UCL’s conduct with a member of the Information Services Division who was on maternity leave.

A statement from UCL said: “Following consultation with staff in the faculty the Dean is confident that the reduction in academic posts can be achieved by voluntary means. We can therefore confirm that UCL no longer needs to establish a Redundancy Committee, as required by UCL’s Statutes, to consider compulsory academic redundancies within Life Sciences.”

Despite these successes, the UCU is remaining vigilant over the possibility of future job cuts: “This does not mean that the war is over and (obviously) there will be battles in the future – it means that we have fought UCL over £20M cuts to stop compulsory redundancies, and UCL has managed to avoid them (more-or-less).”

It is understood that UCL still plan to cut £20 million from its £350 million operating budget, despite a 1.73% increase in the university’s funding from the Higher Education Funding Council of England for the next academic year.

Although some negotiations between UCL and UCU are still in progress, staff will did not strike on May 14th as planned: “The hawks within UCL have tried to set a precedent to show that they are prepared to sack academic staff, attack the idea of a critical academy etc. – they have backed down from making good that threat.”

Over 400 people have signed a petition to pay cleaners at UCL the London Living Wage (LLW) of £7.60 an hour.

Currently, contracted cleaners at UCL only receive the minimum hourly wage of £5.80, which organisers of the campaign argue “is simply not enough to survive in London.”

Five University of London colleges now pay the LLW to their cleaners; LSE, SOAS, Birkbeck, the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine and Queen Mary. KCL has finally held talks with London Citizens, a living wage charity, after 14 months of requests;  a sign that they may be considering paying the LLW to all staff. UCL, however, says it has “no plans to join the London Living Wage campaign,” and has argued that it already pays its own staff above the living wage, but not the cleaners, as they are employed by a contracted company.

The petition, currently with 440 signatories, is aimed at UCL’s president and provost, Malcolm Grant – one of the best paid university leaders in the UK. According to the Higher Education Statistics Agency, Grant was paid was paid £404,742, including pension and benefits, for the 2008-09 academic year. Mazdak Alizadeh, ULU’s vice president, commented: “It can’t be justified to pay so much at the top when people who work for you are struggling to feed their families.”

Many cleaners at University of London colleges are migrants; the Hands Off My Workmate campaign, which promotes migrant workers’ rights, have published a letter in the Guardian which reiterates the fact that “Britain has benefitted in every way from migrants.”

One of the signatories of the letter is Greg Brown, organiser of the UCL Living Wage Campaign: “Cleaners would have to work over 77 years to earn Michael Grant’s salary – 6 days a week on normal wages. UCL obviously have no enthusiasm to confront this issue, which is a significant concern to a large number of students and staff.”

A statement from Goldsmiths College said: “Goldsmiths pays its staff well above the London Living Wage – our minimum rate of pay for those we directly employ is currently £8.84 per hour. We are committed to ensuring that London Living Wage is also paid to staff employed by contractors, and will be ensuring that as contracts are renewed, this is included in the specification.”

The Institute of Education became the target for a pro-Palestinian protest on April 19^th, when it hosted a Zionist Federation event to mark Israel’s 62^nd ‘birthday’.

Around 30 people, including students from King’s, UCL and SOAS gathered outside the entrance to the ‘Israel 62’ party held in Jeffrey Hall. Activists twice entered the building and unfurled a large Palestinian flag bearing the words ‘Free Palestine’.

Police and private security staff ejected the protestors from the building on both occasions but no arrests were made.

Those attending the event heard a speech from Israeli Ambassador to Britain Ron Prosor. Changes to the line-up had included the withdrawal of Palestinian-Israeli singer, Mira Awad, followed by the cancellation of a billed performance by British X-factor finalist Stacey Solomon. The pro-Palestinian International Solidairty Movement said this was because she had become aware of the political nature of the event, but her management said she was never confirmed to sing.

Israelis celebrate the creation of the state of Israel, Yom Ha’atzmaut, as ‘Israeli Independence Day’ annually. Palestinians regard it as a tragic date in their history and commemor ate it as al-Nakba (Arabic for ‘the Catastrophe’) because of the expulsion and displacement of an estimated 700,000 Palestinian refugees.