Members Themed Discussion – Working from Home and general check-in
Thanks to everyone who joined us for this session on 24 Nov 2020. It was upsetting to hear what some people are going through in terms of managing additional workloads, and expectation to hit ‘targets’, amongst other things. UNISON are currently following this up with HR. Notes were circulated yesterday (with the cancellation of the General Meeting) but please let us know if you didn’t receive these.
Also following this meeting, UNISON are putting together a survey on the costs associated with working from home (for those of you that are) and we will be circulating this as soon as possible.
Feedback regarding the Student Information Hubs
There was a review into the Student Hubs at the end of November. UNISON took forward members views on the future of the Student Hubs, and this was presented to review panel. We will keep you updated on this, and thank you for providing us with insight into how you feel they are going.
Career Progression for Professional Services
Following a paper we submitted to the CCM (joint union and HR meeting) in July, UNISON began discussing professional service careers progression with HR and the other campus unions this month. It’s great that HR are open to a conversation about this issue but there is much work to do in this area. The most noteworthy points from this meeting were:
- An overview of ‘career grade roles’ and career pathways in HR and Finance. We will we provide further information on these when we have it;
- ‘Job families’, as seen in ISS; likewise we are still waiting for more details;
- The regrade process;
- Professional development
On the latter point, we are keen for the University to provide more training for the benefit of our members and all colleagues at the University – we are aware that at present a lot of the sessions are weighted towards academics and staff in higher grade roles. That said, we do not believe that it is a lack of training that prevents professional service staff from progression; instead, it is a lack of opportunity.
Joint Project with HR: Stress
At the October CCM, UNISON tabled a paper asking for the University to investigate stress and impacts on wellbeing caused primarily by increased workload due to vacancy control and furloughing (and we also recognise the importance of looking at the pressure of working from home here as well). HR were receptive to working with us on this but we have had no further movement on this issue. We are continuing to press on it and to encourage HR to initiate this joint project as soon as possible. We would really welcome members feeding into this work anonymously when the project has been set up.
Health & Safety over Christmas and the New Year
We have continued over the past month to meet weekly with our fellow campus trade unions, HR and the Health & Safety Office to tackle H&S issues as they arise throughout this first term. In particular, the mass testing arrangements, the travel period for students to return home over Christmas and the arrangements for students to return in January have been our primary focus. We have pushed for our meetings with HR to be formalised to ensure issues we raise are acted upon, and have been successful.
Along with representatives of other unions we were able to attend a meeting with one of the Public Health Officers at Lancashire County Council. Key outcomes of this were that it was confirmed that the decision to move between the DfE ‘teaching tiers’ rests on a conversation between the VC and the Lancashire head of Public Health, and the that the Public Health bodies believe that Lancaster University’s health and safety processes are sound. Along with Unite and UCU we are pushing for involvement in the regular multi-agency meetings that take place.
In addition, we have raised our concerns regarding the recent email to staff notifying them to remain working from home until at least Easter 2021, where the job role allows them to. HR plan to run their own survey in the New Year to understand staff concerns, and we want to make sure your voices are heard through this process, especially if you do not feel comfortable putting your concerns into the official survey. We encourage any members struggling with the ongoing uncertainty around this and issues with prolonged remote working to get in touch via unison@lancaster.ac.uk, where we can make sure they are heard by the University.
Annual Leave
You may have seen from the staff intranet that annual leave will be harmonised for all staff from 1 Oct 2021. Until now the University has offered different allocations of annual leave to staff on Grade 6 and below, and those on Grade 7+. The change means that all staff, whatever their grade or length of service, will be entitled to 25 days (before bank holidays and closure days) annual leave per year (pro-rated for part time staff). This marks the end of a long process of negotiation between unions and the University. UNISON and Unite have agreed to continue conversations around terms and conditions with cleaners and maintenance staff, and to engage in the review of porters and security, but harmonisation of annual leave is no longer dependent on this as it was before.
Thank you to those of you who got in touch to provide information about how your annual leave allowance appeared to change after the announcement of the extra closure days. The updated annual leave calculator was showing that a significant number of part time staff appeared to lose annual leave. After a conversation with HR we can confirm that we don’t have a problem with the way that HR are calculating the total annual leave allocation in most peoples’ cases. But we do have an issue with the fact that many part-time staff have to dig into leave that remains after the deduction of bank holidays and closures days, in order to take the extra closure days that the VC gifted to staff. The unions have written to the VC expressing our opinion that ‘a gift is a gift’ – we’ll let you know the outcome.
Next Meeting
We’re so sorry that we had to cancel today’s General Meeting – as many of you are dealing with work overload at the moment, so are the Exec. However, we are planning our AGM, which will take place on Weds 24 February 2021, from 12:45. The meeting will be held online, and we have organised for there to be a dial-in function for people who don’t have access to IT equipment. Papers will be sent out shortly with more information.