CityU Staff Association Executive Committee

ConfirmedMinutes of the12thmeeting of CityU Staff Association Executive Committee 2006-08 session held on 18thJanuary2008.

Present:John Tse, Lorna Fullgrabe, Lindsay Miller, Lam Yeung , Robin Bradbeer, Godfrey Liu, Apple Cho

1. / Apologies for absence:
Billy Ho, W W Fung, Tony Upham, Rita Takahashi
In Attendance:
Karen Cheng (COMO), Li Shu Tin (SCOPE)
2. / Confirmation of minutes
Minutes of 11th meeting held on 24thOctober 2007were confirmed.
3. / Matters arising
-Referring to the matter of by-elections: it was agreed that as the main election was coming up in May 2008 there was no point in proceeding at this stage. R. Bradbeer would take over Des O’Toole’s role as academic constituency representative.
-All other matters were in the agenda to be discussed. / ACTION
4. / Chairperson’s report
Chair would comment on the signature campaign (item #6 on the agenda) / ACTION
John Tse
5. / Vice-Chairpersons’ Reports
All items were on the agenda. / ACTION
6. / Protest against unfair treatment
A signature campaign was held on 15th January 2008 to protest against unfair treatment of contract staff, University staff seconded to the College and in support of post-retirement medical insurance (the petition message is attached to these minutes). More than 1000 staff and students signed the petition. This would be presented to the University management at a meeting to be arranged the following week. / ACTION
John Tse/W W Fung
7. / Consultative Committee for Superannuation Scheme B
The finalised copy of the letter was being translated and needed to be sent out by 21 January 2008. Address list was not provided in soft copy so it would require effort to create a list to produce labels. Discussed the logistics of how to get the letters mailed – a team of people would be needed to fold and insert the nearly 1500 letters and forms into envelopes then they would have to be taken to the Post Office. All had to be handled in strict confidence. Decided to send an EBS asking for assistance from members and to do this on Friday, 25 January 2008, before Chinese New Year holiday.
No more information on changing the staff representatives on the Board of Trustees. The question was raised as to why the minutes of their meetings were not available to staff. Chair to follow up with the Director of Finance.
. / ACTION
R. Bradbeer
John Tse
8. / Appraisal of College Principal
A soft copy of the Appraisal of the President would be circulated and members were asked to make changes that would be relevant for appraisal of the College Principal. The aim would be to conduct the appraisal after Chinese New Year. / ACTION
W W Fung/Lorna Fullgrabe
9. / Review of City Top catering contract
Chair to follow-up when this is to be conducted. SAEC’s position is that there should be full review even if it is only an extension of the contract that is being considered. Given the problems this is important to staff, particularly as the Staff Club is not being run as it should be for the enjoyment of staff. It appears to be an extension of the dining facilities or offered for outside events. / ACTION
John Tse
10. / Medical benefits post-retirement
Chair reported that the tender document for the University-wide medical cover would go out in February as the current contract ends June 2008. This was one of the items that we protested about as it is of concern to many staff. Chair would follow-up and ensure that the tender document would include this item. / ACTION
John Tse/ Godfrey Liu/L.Fullgrabe
11. / Election
Already discussed above in item # 3, matters arising.
12. / Forum on HKIED Judicial Review
Agreed to host a forum on academic freedom and provide tea for those attending. Noted that SAEC will join in the forum and that the Concern Group’s support would be needed. / ACTION
John Tse/ W W Fung/ R. Bradbeer
13. / Items for Staff Consultative Committee meeting
Confirmed SA’s position on reporting of non-remunerated outside practice – Departmental Head can be notified but should not have authority to approve or not approve; remunerated outside practice must have approval.
Relationship between SCOPE, CCCU and the University needs to be clarified. The Transition Committee appears to be operating like a black box but the process should be open and transparent. Noted that there is no staff representation on this committee.
General education – the impact on staff will be considereable. Heard from a member that the members of the General Education Committee are non-specialists yet they are making decisions about specialist education courses. Replacing the OODs system which represented a more liberal approach with a rigid and limited set of choices seems to be a regressive move. The impact of less OODs will have a severe impact on current staffing needs. Resourcing for the new courses is not clear. The Language companion course run by CTL will affect jobs in the ELC and the merits of having a proof-reading service for students off-campus needs to be clarified. Questions were raised as to the English competence required for students studying the 4 year degree. / ACTION
John Tse/ R. Bradbeer/ L. Miller/ W W Fung
14. / Social activities
Agreed to make a request to set up a booth at the Chinese New Year Staff Party to invite staff to join CityU SA.
Snake dinner was held successfully on 26 December 2008.
Decided to hold a mahjong competition before Chinese New Year and have a trophy for the winner. Entrants would be asked to contribute and SA would support this event. / ACTION
John Tse
John Tse

Protest against unfair treatment!

SEND A MESSAGE to the University Council and senior management that we are fed-up with them dragging their feet on issues that are IMPORTANT to all of us at CityU.

Come down and sign a petition on Tuesday, 15 Jan.

12.30-2.30pm, outside the Library

OUR DEMANDS:

ALL contracts should be a minimum of 2 years and anyone who has worked here for 6 or moreyears should be offered a permanent appointment

New conditions contract staff (post 2002) should NOW be given increases so that they can begin to catch up:

EQUAL WORK EQUAL PAY – it’s only fair!

Give back the money taken unfairlyfrom University staff seconded to the College who took an UNNECESSARY and huge PAY CUT OF 20% from 2004!

Is post-retirement medical insurance important to you? Let’s make sure it goes into the next University tender for staff medical coverage, so that retiring staff can get the benefits they well deserve.

Executive Committee

CityUniversity of Hong Kong Staff Association

Working for YOU

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