ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY & COLLEGE UNION
Minutes: Committee Meeting
Date: Wednesday 11 March 2015
Time: 1pm
Venue: Edward Wright S86
In Attendance: Mike McConnell (Chair), Isobel Ford (via e-link), Andrew Fraser, Bill Harrison, Miep Helfrich, Pete Jeffels, Steven Lawrie, Andrew MacGregor, Keith O’Sullivan, Ruth Payne, Adam Price, Allan Sim, David Watts, Michael Wolfindale
Apologies: Mufeedh Choudhury, Alan Fenwick, Dannette Marie, Ben Marsden, Rachel Shanks, Fiona Stewart, Joe Whimster
Minutes: Susan Melvin
1. Welcome:
Mike welcomed everyone to the meeting.
2. Minutes of Committee on Wednesday 25 February and matters arising:
a) Minutes approved.
b) Mike clarified that Mary Senior would re-visit her initial thoughts regarding the pay docking hearing appeal to the Scottish Public Service Ombudsman and would report back if she thinks there are any reasonable grounds for appeal.
c) Fiona, David, Allan and Ben met with Liam Fuller, AUSA VP for Education to discuss the possibility of a joint approach to the University regarding academic advising. Feedback suggests that students are unhappy with the removal of academic advising and continue to ask for this from their personal tutors. However, a joint AUCU/AUSA campaign may not be feasible at this stage.
d) The EIS Freedom of Information request regarding the use of zero hours contracts has been circulated for information, and a copy sent to Mary Senior at UCUS. There is still much to be clarified about the use of such contracts, and when they are being used. It was agreed that a small sub-group of the committee would meet to discuss this further.
e) Rachel had forwarded the material regarding the Probation Policy to Debbie Dyker.
f) A series of consultation meetings (Old Aberdeen, Foresterhill and Rowett) regarding the changes in the USS pension scheme are being arranged by the University. David will ask if he may give a short presentation at the meetings on behalf of UCU (as UCU is a co-trustee of the scheme.) Although the consultation process (s statutory requirement) is unlikely to lead to significant changes in the proposals, it is hoped that there will be scope to influence matters such as the evaluation method, index-linking etc.
3. Report back from PNCC (Rachel/Fiona):
Deferred.
4. AOB:
a) Susan attended the Branch Administrators’ Meeting at UCUS on Tuesday. The following topics were discussed:
i) Louise McGurk intends to offer Branch Health Checks to all branches. These will allow branches to identify priorities and targets and to achieve them with support from UCUS.
ii) Training courses for UCU reps who represent members (caseworkers) is a legal requirement. Refresher courses will be arranged in due course.
iii) UCUS campaigns including governance and sexism on campus were discussed.
iv) Ed bailey, Deputy Head of Campaigns, spoke about the various support options available to branches. The new UCU intranet system was also mentioned and it is hoped this will be in place soon. National campaigns such as Build The Union, anti-casualisation, defending adult education etc were also discussed.
b) Dannette raised the issue of fixed term contracts and the practice of immediately stopping email and library access on termination of the contract – even when the staff member was due to return to another contract within a short period of time. The reasons for this are understood but it was felt that there could perhaps be a compromise made in situations where new contracts are expected to start within a short time, as access to university emails is essential for those working on grant applications etc. There are also reports of members identified as “at risk of redundancy” feeling stigmatised. Miep reported that the JCCRA (Joint Consultative Committee on Redundancy Avoidance) statistics regarding redeployment figures are reasonably good. It was agreed that it would be worth discussing this further with University (Fiona/Rachel to progress)
c) Andrew M attended to ATUC AGM.
d) We now have a full complement of 4 delegates attending the UCU Scotland annual Congress in Edinburgh at the end of the month (Pete, Rachel, Miep, Frederik).
e) Facilities provision: the university have declined to provide a new laptop for the branch, although this is contrary to the letter (and spirit) of the joint negotiating and partnership agreement. It is felt that there is a creeping marginalisation of trade union concerns during negotiation meetings and this may, if necessary, be taking up at Court level.
f) The Out Of Hours Policy was raised as some Library staff have been advised that this now applies to them. The policy was previously agreed by AUCU but is now due for review. Mike will highlight the need for review at the next policy review group meeting.
g) The standardised 40-hour working week was discussed. It is understood that the standardised working week is being introduced in order to fit with OneSource. Concerns about out-of-hours working (eg weekend exams, evening lectures) and loss of flexible working practice were raised. This issue links in with the workload and work-planning issues which are currently being negotiation with the University (informal consultation at this stage). In addition, there are concerns that the University may attempt to push through unreasonable and unachievable time allocations for particular tasks such as exam setting or marking. If these then cannot be met, the Capability Procedure may be invoked, leading to staff being unfairly at risk of losing their jobs.
h) Capability Procedure: Mike and Isobel both reported that there have been a number of disabled members of staff being placed in the capability procedure. They will meet to discuss his further.
MEETING CLOSED AT 155pm
NEXT MEETINGS:
1 – 2pm, Wednesday 18 March, Edward Wright S86 (sub group on zero hours – anyone to attend who wishes to)
1 – 2 pm, Wednesday 25 March, Edward Wright S86 (committee)
ACTION LIST
David
Contact University to ask about giving UCU presentation at the USS consultation meetings (Item 2f)
Fiona/Rachel
Progress discussion about end of contract treatment of staff, inc access to email accounts (discuss with Dannette/Alan F for background) (Item 4b)#
Mike
Raise Out Of Hours Policy at Policy Review Group Meeting (Item 4f)
Mike & Isobel
Disabled members of staff in Capability Procedure – discuss and decide what, if any, action is required at this stage (Item 4h)
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