Open University Branch of University & College Union

OPEN UNIVERSITY BRANCH OF UNIVERSITY & COLLEGE UNION

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minutes of last meeting

CONFIDENTIALITY OF MINUTES

MATTERS ARISING - NONE

president’s report - a written report was submitted in advance of the meeting

4.1

4.3

secretary’s report – see Appendix 1 for the written report submitted in advance of the meeting.

treasurer’s report – see Appendix 2 for the written report submitted in advance of the meeting.

EQUALITY OFFICER’S REPORT - see Appendix 3 for the written report submitted in advance of the meeting.

Roger commented that the Bullying & Harassment group work is going well.

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ds

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10.1

APPENDIX 1 - Secretary's report to OU UCU branch executive committee meeting 23rd November 2009

(1)Management have informed us of their intention to make about a dozen ALs redundant from SK121 which is going over to a different form of presentation in electronic forums using study advisors. I queried whether the ALs concerned could be given priority for the new jobs, and was told they might be self-employed. If so, I believe it is unlikely they will meet the criteria for genuine self-employment, and we need to query the introduction of this category of staff for whom we should have negotiating rights.

(2)I am getting many more non-renewals of Fixed Term Contracts. We need to ensure that legal requirements, including the less-equal-treatment clauses of the Fixed Term Employees Regulations are not being circumvented.

(3)Our regional official did not want to be involved in the “techie” aspects of the use of the forum in the branch elections, but everything went smoothly, if slightly disappointing in terms of participation.

(4)The next issue of Spark is still under production, due to late arrival of articles.

(5)Deb and I are in the process of putting together a calendar of 2010 meeting dates for approval at the executive meeting on 8th December.

(6)I will shortly be circulating a questionnaire on the time of day of executive meetings.

Lesley Kane, Hon. Secretary

APPENDIX 2 - Treasurer’s Report AGM 2009

Summary

At the last AGM and at subsequent GMs, it was suggested that the branch’s investments should be split into £50,000 chunks in order to spread risk and to take advantage of the Financial Services compensation scheme. There was also concern that the branch should invest ethically. This prompted three actions:

1. £50,000 from HSBC was invested with the Cooperative Bank;
2. £50,000 from HSBC was invested with Triodos Bank;
3. An ethical investment subgroup was set up, consisting of the following people: Roger Moore, Dianne Sutton, Alan Carr, David Knowles.

Three members of the ethical investment subgroup met Laurie Bell from Unity Trust Bank to discuss investments. From this and from subsequent discussions, it became clear that the Financial Services compensation scheme was unlikely to apply to the branch’s investments, since they would probably be considered as part of the overall UCU investments. Roger Moore recommended that we investigate building societies as possible places to invest money, and this has recently been approved by the executive committee.

Interest Rates

During the year, interest rates have dropped dramatically, and the effect is only now showing itself fully. At the end of the financial year, we were facing the prospect of receiving less than £1,000 in interest, whereas two years ago we received over £13,000. In particular, Unity Trust Bank is no longer paying interest on our current account, and the loan to UCU (which has the same interest rate) is no longer paying interest. As a result of these falls in interest rates, a loss of £7,000 for the current year was forecast.

Actions taken since the end of the financial year

The investments in Triodos and Cooperative Banks have been reduced. £50,000 has been invested with Harpenden Building Society at 2% and £50,000 with Bath Building Society at 2.7%. A seven-day notice account (paying at least 1.75%) has been opened with Scottish Widows Bank to supplement our Unity Trust current account.

Investments for discussion

We still have £100,000 that is earning little or no interest. The £50,000 loan to UCU matures on 31 March 2010, but we could recall it at seven days notice and reinvest it elsewhere. On the other hand, it would increase UCU costs centrally, and we would only gain about £300.

The £50,000 of investments in Triodos and Cooperative Banks are effectively earning no interest, and the only reason for keeping them is to support ethical banking. We could re-invest this money in small Building Societies, and this is what I recommend.

Subscriptions

In view of the likely fall in income this year, the executive recommends increases in local subscriptions to take effect from 1 September 2010.

APPENDIX 3 - Equality Officer’s Report – November 2009

Bullying and Harassment Policy

The work on developing a new policy continues. Next meeting - 26th November. Progress so far -

• Management have come up with a draft policy which is much clearer and easier to follow.
• substantial agreement on points but still some clarification needed /issues to iron out
• agreed so far- issues of bullying and harassment to be raised under B&H procedures, in the first instance, rather than grievance procedures; should cover temporary/agency workers; time limit – 90 days after last incident; attempt to resolve informally first/where appropriate; confidentiality; need to clarify situation regarding vexatious complaints; more support (letter from HR)
• issues requiring clarification/ to be agreed – relationship with Code of Practice for Student Discipline, wording to be finalised which makes clear that it is legitimate for complaints to be raised about B&H about the way both disciplinary action is carried out and about performance management i.e. not legitimate to complain about being performance managed but legitimate to complain about the way it is carried out; definition of vexatious;
• Once policy agreed will look at procedures
• Bethan investigating U3A offering impartial support.

New Equality Scheme

UCU feedback sent on draft scheme after consultation with Rachel Curley. Main issue lack of any overall university wide action plan – action plans will be developed by units which is likely to result in divergence of practice. Other issues raised – some changes to terminology suggested and loss of detail from current individual schemes for disability, ‘race’ and gender.

Maria McCrea, Equality Officer

APPENDIX 4 - AL officers report November 09

There was a meeting of the AL reps committee just after our last exec meeting and a meeting of AL working group on 5th November.

Reps committee issues

DALS

The reps would like UCU to advice members not to cooperate with the DALS process, as they regard it as flawed. Some of the questions have little to do with AL performance, and ALs taking perfectly reasonable action against students such as detecting possible plagiarism, or refusing extensions may find the feedback is consequently biased. Non co-operation would mean not adding additional questions; not encouraging students to do the questionnaire; not viewing the results and not engaging in discussion with staff tutors about the results.

Position of assistant reps

The reps committee is currently healthy in that we have reps for all regions, and assistant reps in 4 regions. Last year was the first time we have had any assistant reps; we are keen not to turn away anyone who wants to get involved. The position of the assistant reps was that they were invited to at least one meeting a year, and otherwise only attended if the main rep could not. We would like to invite the assistant reps to all the meetings, the additional costs in doing so are not great, and it seems to be the best way to encourage their engagement. The meetings would be unwieldy if every region had an assistant and everyone turned up, but this seems unlikely. There is a potential problem over voting rights (although votes are rare) – we would like to change standing orders so that all reps present have a vote.

Group sizes

There is some evidence that some staff tutors are not keeping to the spirit of the agreement and are making 129% group sizes the norm.

Workload management under the new contract

The reps were shown the management paper on proposed workload management under the new contract. They were very unhappy with the proposals, particularly with the lack of protection for ALs on small workload ranges. About 50% of ALs currently have only one contract to teach one course, about 75% have the equivalent of less than 0.2% FTE.

Two motions

1 that

‘ALs expect to be paid for the time spent doing the job. ALs expect to be paid at the correct point on the Academic pay scale. ALs expect to be paid expenses and to have a permanent contract with job security. For these reasons we reject the workload proposals.’
and 2 that

‘ this paper does not represent an agreement that AL reps could recommend our members to accept.’
were carried unanimously.

AL working group issues

DALS

Management agreed at the last meeting that systems would be modified to give ALs the right to record their own comments following each round of DALS. We asked for an update on progress. Management reported that they are in the process of implementation of a performance management system for ALs of which DALS is just a part.

“An online system is being developed to capture data on the key performance indicators of the AL role such as TMA turnaround, monitoring and student feedback. These data, available to the AL and their manager, will provide a basis for review and discussion which will culminate in a performance management review record, to be kept by both the AL and their manager. Any development needs identified would need to be addressed before the next review period.”

This is a quote from an email from the VC to an AL who is being forced to retire. ALs will have the ability to comment on the whole thing at some point in the cycle.

Access to intranet for ALs

At the moment ALs are blocked from accessing a lot of information on the intranet, which is freely accessible to site based employees. Management reported that work is being done to block access to some material which should not be accessible to most employees and to make the rest accessible to ALs as well as other staff.

14 day deadline for TMA marking.

We asked for a relaxation of this rule, which is causing unacceptable workload peaks for some ALs with clashing deadlines. This is a health and safety issue now that most marking is done on a computer. Management replied that this is a quality issue which would need to be considered by various academic committees, but that this is the wrong approach, we should be campaigning to cut the marking workload.

Sue Hawthorne, AL’s Officer

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