I hope that everyone managed to enjoy the break, and here we are, back at the beginning of a new term, with more of a whimper than a bang.
Stewards are currently very busy with casework, and we are pushing the University on a number of issues – workloads and stress continue to be a high priority, and we’re also asking for the capability procedures to be suspended during the pandemic.
The results of the voluntary severance scheme have now been communicated – there has been a lot of disappointment amongst our members who were turned down. There is no appeal process for the VSS, but if you think that the process has covered other issues/injustices, please get in touch with us and let us know.
We’re also very aware that many of our members are juggling a variety of caring responsibilities with work at the moment – unlike the University, UNISON understand you’re not a cog in a machine – if you feel that you’re not being offered the support and flexibility you need, please get in touch.
Here is the first of many newsletters of 2021, enjoy.
Best wishes,
Hannah Monaghan
Communications Officer
www.lancaster.ac.uk/users/unison/
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Members Themed Discussion
Thanks to all those of you who attended Tuesday’s Members’ Themed Discussion. Apologies for the late notice – all the Branch Exec have been meeting ourselves coming backwards this January (as I know many of you have as well!).
The themes for discussion were ‘post lockdown work environment’ and ‘supporting members with caring responsibilities’. The anonymised notes have been circulate to members via email, and UNISON will continue to resist the normalisation of the remote working culture (unless it genuinely benefits members), and seek clarity over elements of support for members with caring responsibilities. One thing that came through loud and clear is that we are not just cogs in a machine, or ‘human capital’, but are human beings who need social connection and time for ourselves.
Our next Members’ Themed Discussion will be on Weds 24 Mar 2021, 13:00-14:00. Please hold this time in your diaries, and more information will be sent in due course.
UNISON – Winter Fuel Grant
UNISON can help with a one-off grant of up to £200 to help with winter fuel costs. We want to make this fund go as far as possible and help as many members as we can. Please only apply if you are in financial difficulty. More information can be found on the national UNISON website.
Feedback regarding the Student Information Hubs
As many of you will know, the University set up some Student Information Hubs (SIHs) last term. The unions were not consulted on the establishment of these Hubs; however, we did meet with senior SES colleagues shortly before the end of Michaelmas Term. Subsequently, we fed into a review of the Hubs that took place over the Christmas break. Pleasingly, the review panel’s report specifically referenced the ‘constructive feedback from UNISON’ and one of the recommendations was that ‘it would be helpful to engage with all of the Trade Unions in implementing the recommendations outlined above’.
We discussed the Hubs briefly at the members’ themed discussion on 26 January and several members voiced concerns that longer-term the establishment of Hubs could lead to a centralisation of services and realignment of responsibilities (for example, PS staff having less of a department link).
If you would like to share your thoughts on the Hubs with us, please do so via unison@lancaster.ac.uk. Ideally, please send this information to us before 4 February so that we can include it in our feedback on the review recommendations.
Financial Impact of modified working arrangements – members survey
Following feedback from members about the financial impact of modified working arrangements since the start of the Pandemic in March 2020, we are keen to find out more about individual member’s costs and savings to check whether the Management assumption that all staff are better off due to savings on commuting is always the case.
We want to know the impact both for those working from home and those with modified working arrangements on Campus. The survey covers both one-off costs at any point since March 2020 and ongoing costs and savings by comparing outgoings in October 2019 with those in October 2020.
You can complete the survey anonymously but we do need some contextual information about your post. All information provided will be treated in confidence and only shared in anonymised and aggregated formats.
Survey Link: We only want this to be accessed by branch members, so haven’t posted the link here. Please email us if you don’t already have access to it, and would like to participate.
Health & Safety
We have been continuing to monitor the Health and Safety situation at the University since the end of the Christmas break, and have continued to raise issues around workloads and stress, alongside dealing with specific risk assessments. We will be embarking on a joint piece of work with HR to consider workload issues, and would appreciate members contacting us with any specific issues around hotspots so that we can feedback to HR.
We have been made aware that there have been some instances of staff being asked to work on campus when risk assessments have not been completed. It is vitally important that risk assessments are completed before work takes place on campus. Risk assessments should also be shared with staff and you can request to see them to make sure that risks have been considered and appropriate measures put in place. We suggest that all members request to see relevant risk assessments before undertaking work on campus.
Please let us know if you have any concerns or queries related to Health and Safety.
Annual Leave
You might remember that we asked for input from members who work part-time/non-standard work patterns at the end of last year in order to test the updated annual leave calculator that was provided following the announcement that the VC was awarding staff four additional closure days.
As many of you who contributed case studies confirmed, it appeared that the updated calculator left people with less ‘free’ annual leave than before the closure days were awarded. We followed this up with HR, and spent a good amount of time digging into the background calculations, etc. We were satisfied that the calculators are – most of the time, for most people – accurate.
Whilst the additional closure days resulted in all staff having their overall annual leave entitlement increased, for part-time staff and those on non-standard working patterns those closure days were pro-rated, in line with University policy, i.e. a proportion was awarded in line with your contracted hours. The effect of this was that in order to take the four additional closure days as leave on those days you would also have had to use some of your remaining annual leave allocation, resulting in what appears to be less ‘free’ annual leave (i.e. leave hours you can take when you want, outside of bank holidays and closure days).
The three campus unions wrote to the VC to express disappointment, and to ask that the four extra closure days be a genuine gift (i.e. not affect peoples’ ‘free’ annual leave), but this was refused.
We’re continuing to look at the situation for affected staff and are considering options – we’d like to speak to any members who have been affected by this to work out a way forward. Please email us if you’re happy to speak about this further.
AGM reminder
You should all already have received a formal notification re the upcoming AGM on Weds 24th Feb 2021, 12:45-14:45. Full papers will be sent out in the next couple of weeks.
This year it isn’t possible for us to meet face-to-face, so there are some differences in the way the meeting will run. We’ll be holding it virtually over Teams, and we have dial in functionality for those of you who don’t have access to a computer or wifi – please email us at unison@lancaster.ac.uk to find out how to use it.
We can’t take nominations on the day for Branch Exec roles as we have in previous years, as there isn’t really an effective voting system to use online. After the AGM, if you’re still interested in taking on a role, let us know and we can look into co-opting you.
We desperately need more H&S representatives – full training will be given. Health and Safety has been one of our biggest areas of activity this year, and it’s stretched us pretty thin. Please get in touch if you’re interested and we can explain more.
If you fancy supporting us, but aren’t able to commit loads of time, please consider being a local contact. This would involve being a first point of contact for members and potential members, and an informal conduit for information, in a particular area of the University – e.g. a Faculty or PS Division. You would not be expected to represent members, but signpost them to stewards – but if the role piques your interest and you would like to become a steward we can talk to you about that and seek training. We already have people who have put themselves forward for RES and FHM, but if you’re interested please get in touch.