1 | PageAGM minutes 4/3/2015

Minutes of the University of Brighton Branch of UNISONAnnual General Meeting

Held on Wednesday4thMarch 2015 at Cockcroft hall

1) Welcome

The chair of the meeting Martin Loftus welcomed everyone to the meeting.

The meeting was also attended by Caroline Fife Unison Regional Officer

andMax Watson NEC member for HE and from London Met UNISON branch.

2) Minutes of previous AGM.

The minutes of the previous meeting were voted on and agreed as a true record.

3) Ratification of the financial return.

The financial return was presented to the AGM, voted on and agreed

4) Election of Branch Officers and Area Reps.

Carole Hanson temporarily took the chair whilst Martin Loftus was proposed as Branch chair This was voted on and agreed.

Martin Loftus then read out the full list of members standing for officer and rep posts which was:

Chair/(Moulsecoomb steward)Martin Loftus

SecretaryCarole Hanson

TreasurerDawn Whitaker

Communications/Membership Officer/ Moulsecoomb steward)Ivan Bonsell

Education Officer/ Falmer Steward and H&S repSandy Clayton

Equalities Officer/Moulsecoomb StewardMaurizio Valeri

Lifelong LearningCathy Peters

LGBT Officer/Student Union StewardSarah Pickett

Retired members OfficerMike Adams

Health and safety Officer/Moulsecoomb health and safety repBob Salvage

Kevin Pullinger (Moulsecoomb steward)

Michelle Clark (Moulsecoomb steward )

David Thomas (Eastbourne health and safety rep)

Mandy Williams (Falmer steward and health and safety rep)

Maggie Lloyd (Hastings steward)

Jim Hendtlass (Grand Parade health and safety rep)

Dan Simmonds (Student Union Steward)

5) Branch Secretary’s Address

6) Speaker, Max Watson, London Met.

7) Motions and Questions

The following motion was put to the meetingby University of Brighton UNISON Branch Committee

Proposed by Ivan Bonsell

Seconded by Sarah Pickett

Reorganisation of Student Administration, Quality Assurance and the Research Environment

This branch notes:

  1. That this reorganisation was first announced as a document dated October 2013. Since then, Faculty Offices have been abolished with nothing to replace them and a data-collection exercise has taken place with no useful outcome, but the published timetable of changes has been revised several times.
  2. Communication on StaffCentral has been sporadic, lacking in clarity and failed to give our members any assurances about their future roles. The latest, dated November 2014 gives September 2016 as a final end date.
  3. Any suggestion that the branch has been fully informed of the detailed plan, process or procedures is an exaggeration, with discussions so far limited to Common Interest Group and a promise to establish a working group.
  4. Many members of staff have had the threat of changes to their roles hanging over them for months with no realistic prospect of this being resolved by the latest timetable.
  5. Comments made by some senior members of staff have been inflammatory and expressed ideas contrary to the university’s “commitment that there will not be any compulsory redundancies” and the concept of a continuation of employees’ main place of work and/or flexible working arrangements being respected.

This branch resolves:

  1. To press for regular meetings with senior managers to ensure that commitments made are not broken and that the process of change is agreed.
  2. To maintain pressure so that regular communication from Senior Management Team is made available to all, written in a way that is understandable and sets out the process as it affects our members.
  3. To make sure that as much as possible, we resist any detriment to our members’ jobs, grades and working conditions, on a collective basis.
  4. To insist that the process is transparent, fairly applied and done in such a way that all staff can continue to work at the university in roles that are appropriate.
  5. To organise meetings of affected staff so that we can organise effectively as a branch, representing members and acting for the interests of staff as a whole.
  6. To continue to agitate amongst non-members, so that as many people as possible appreciate that we can achieve much more collectively than we can as individuals and join the union.
  7. That any attempt to impose change that the branch considers to be beyond what is appropriate will be met with non-cooperation and further action as necessary.

A discussion was held and it was agreed to change the word ‘agitate’ to ‘engage and communicate with’

This was voted on and agreed.

The amended motion was voted on and agreed by clear majority, there were no votes against.

8) Cash Prize draw

Caroline Fife carried out the prize draw from the questionnaires UNISON had received and the winner of the £50 prize was Daniel Wasp.

Martin Loftus then formally closed the meeting and thanked everyone for coming