On Fri 25th Sep UNISON, Unite and UCU issued a notice of unsatisfactory working conditions to Lancaster University, citing two overall concerns:
- that the promise that students would receive in-person teaching this term would put staff at increased risk of infection from Covid 19, and
- the decision to open a number of University buildings to the general public, thereby making it impossible to control the numbers of people passing through them, undermined the hard work that colleagues had put into risk assessing their work, and also increased the risk to staff of Covid-19 infection
To date the Unions have received a tepid managerial response to our concerns, and are awaiting a follow up meeting.
We are also concerned by the VC’s claim, in his start-of-year message, that the University have been “…working with trade unions to risk assess all that we are doing.” Whilst the unions have scrutinised a large number of risk assessments since mid-June 2020 via a weekly Health & Safety meeting that was initiated by the unions, there has been a significant amount of activity in the University that hasn’t passed through this mechanism, despite our best efforts.
At this point in time it would be hugely helpful if members who are working on campus can keep us updated about what is happening ‘on the ground’. As a union we have particular concerns about the following:
- Colleges and college staff (including ‘volunteer’ college advisors)
- Staff who are supporting face to face teaching – this could be porters and security, technicians, cleaning, maintenance or admin staff
- Staff who are running / involved in the Faculty ‘student hubs’
Please email us at unison@lancaster.ac.uk with any information or concerns that you might have.
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Our next Members’ discussion, on the theme of University ‘cost savings’, will be held via Teams on Weds 14 Oct at 10am. The link for this can be found on the Unison Teams group. Please email unison@lancaster.ac.uk for access to the group, where you can discuss (confidentially) any areas of concern, as well as keep in touch with the branch.