Dear Members 

We’ve got a very long edition of the newsletter, and we cover a lot of ground in it. Please take a look at the ‘contents’ so you don’t miss anything. 
 
Very sadly, one of our members has recently passed away, and the branch sends our condolences to the family of Emma Fitchett. Please do read the tribute below, written by our Branch Secretary Katie, who worked with Emma. 

It was great to see so many of you attending our meeting on 9 Jun regarding the forthcoming ballot. Ballot papers have started to arrive in the post (I got mine Monday morning), so please do you use your vote. 

We are coming to the end of exams, and I know that many of you will have worked additional hours over the exam period to make sure the process has gone smoothly. For those of you that have accrued more than 36.5 hours TOIL (doesn’t have to be accrued on exam-related activity) you should be entitled to overtime payments for the additional hours worked. If you’re not being paid this, please get in touch with us and we’ll support you in following this up. 

We’d love it if more of you joined us on the branch committee! We’re particularly looking for someone to take on the role of Health & Safety Officer, and we also have vacancies for an Education Officer and Lifelong Learning Co-ordinator but we can always find a role for any member who wants to become more active! 

As ever, please get in touch if you would like more information about ways to get involved in the Branch Executive Committee, or if you need our support. 

In solidarity 

Desna Mackenzie 

Chair 

UNISON Lancaster University 

unison@lancaster.ac.uk 

www.lancaster.ac.uk/users/unison/  

Contents:   

• In memoriam 
• Ballot on 20/21 Pay Offer (Lancaster University members only) 
• Dates for forthcoming Branch Meetings  
• Cleaners’ Terms and Conditions  
• When is a Policy Not a Policy?  LU’s approach to supporting staff in the Menopause – the story so far and what you can do.  
• LUMS Space Review  
• FASS Organisational Review 
• Reimagining Working Practices 
• USS Pensions 
• Changes in your Branch Workplace Representative team 
• Labour Link 
• Health and Safety 
• Member Welfare 
• Becoming a more diverse and inclusive branch 

In Memoriam 

As many of you will be aware, our university community lost a much-loved colleague recently when Emma Fitchett sadly passed away after a short illness. Emma was also a member of UNISON. Emma was kind, caring, loyal and friendly as well as an outstanding member of staff who will be missed by staff and students alike. We send our deepest condolences to Emma’s friends and family. If you would like to make a contribution in Emma’s memory to support her family, please visit this Justgiving page. 

Ballot on 2020/21 pay offer – Lancaster University members only – PLEASE VOTE! 

The pay offer to staff working Higher Education for 2020/2021 was 0%. Zero percent for one of the hardest years of our working lives. 

Earlier this year the branch committee agreed that we would ballot members in regard to this – we feel that it is important that you have the opportunity to express your views on this situation.  

The ballot is now open, and papers are being sent to members by post. Whatever your stance on this, please use this opportunity to vote – a turnout of over 50% is legally required to legitimise the outcome of the ballot. 

In order to prevent any results being challenged, we need you to ensure your contact details are up to date. Please log into MyUnison and make sure that your job title, employer, subscription rate and contact details are accurate. If you are at all unsure about how to complete this information, please contact unison@lancaster.ac.uk, or contact our membership officer, Claire Roberts, on Teams Chat, for further advice. 

We held an extraordinary branch meeting on 9 Jun 2021 to discuss any questions members might have – I hope that we were able to answer all of them fully, but please get in touch with any concerns that you might have.  

UNISON have put together some national Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs), and we’re also intending to put together a local FAQs document which we will share in our Members’ space on MS Teams.  

Please note, this ballot is different to the online consultative vote you may recently have participated in – that was about whether or not to accept the coming year’s pay offer. A decision will be taken on whether to ballot for industrial action on this at a later date.

Forthcoming Branch meetings  

Our next Branch General Meeting takes place on Weds 22 Sep 2021 16:30-17:30 – a long way away, but please put it in your diary now! A link to the meeting has been sent to members via email, and we will send a reminder nearer the time. 

We have another Members’ Themed Discussion pencilled in for Weds 14 July 14:00-15:00. Again, a link has been emailed to members, and a reminder will be sent nearer the time. If you have any suggestions for a theme to discuss, please post in our members’ space on Teams! 

If you can’t access a device to make use of Teams, we have a dial-in function for participating in meetings  – please let us know if you’d like to access it, and we’ll be in touch with further instructions. 

The Branch website has now been updated with all scheduled meetings til the end of the calendar year. 

Cleaners’ Terms and Conditions update 

Following the announcement at the end of last year that the University has finally decided to harmonise annual leave across the different grades from Oct 2021, UNISON and Unite have agreed to continue conversations about proposed changes to terms and conditions for cleaners.  

These conversations have been long delayed by Covid restrictions, but we will be holding meetings with cleaners w/c 12^th July 2021. We will be working within supervisor groups/work bubbles so this shouldn’t be too disruptive to members, and we will be in touch shortly with details of meeting times. 

Q: When is a policy not a policy? 

A: When it’s Menopause Guidance 

Last week we emailed all Lancaster University members the joint statement from the campus trade unions about the University’s non-negotiable decision-making about a menopause policy.  

Without repeating that statement, it’s an absolute travesty that University Senior Management have unilaterally decided to implement ‘menopause guidance’ – and exclude both the unions and the grassroots staff network that first proposed the policy – from any further conversation about how people going through menopause will be supported at Lancaster University. 

It’s important to understand that ‘guidance’ is something that, well, guides, it isn’t really enforceable, whatever the employer claims. Policy, however, makes clear institutional commitments – which is what we seek for members experiencing or affected by menopause.  

 We encourage members to email the Vice Chancellor and Deputy Vice Chancellor (email addresses in members’ email version of this newsletter) to ask that the university demonstrates its commitment to EDI and support for staff wellbeing by adopting menopause guidance as policy as was originally intended. 

LUMS Space Review  

Members in LUMS will know that the Faculty has been undertaking a consultation with staff seeking views on how space should be used in the future. Unlike other reviews of ways of working on campus (see ‘Reimagining Working Practices’ below), this review will also be affecting academics, with a potential call for academic staff to give up single occupancy offices.  

There is the potential for a huge impact on the way Professional Services staff work in LUMS so we approached the Dean about this, and are now involved in informal conversations about the situation. We aren’t seeking to replace the Faculty’s own consultation, but we do want to hear from members in LUMS about any concerns  about the proposed changes, as well as any benefits they see them bringing. 

We are aware that when managers undertake ‘consultation’ not everyone is happy to be completely open and honest, for fear of repercussions. Trade Unions are able to have those honest conversations with management so please do bring any issues of concern or positives you can see to our attention. 

We have established that this informal conversation doesn’t preclude formal consultation with trade unions on any firm proposals that come out of this review process. 

FASS Organisational Review 

Branch members in FASS have been talking about a potential restructure of the Faculty for at least two years (and probably longer). As a branch we’ve tried to hunt down information about this, and it seems that with the arrival of the new Dean of FASS that at last there is now some measure of transparency about plans (even if the proposals aren’t welcomed). We’ve been informed that the Dean is open to an informal conversation with unions about the proposals – now known as the FASS organisational review, papers can be downloaded/viewed on the intranet. 

We’re still awaiting information about how/when we will be able to discuss this with the Dean and Faculty management, but welcome thoughts and inputs from members in FASS – please email us if you have anything you want to share.  

We have established that this informal conversation doesn’t preclude formal consultation with trade unions on any firm proposals that come out of this review process. 

Reimagining Working Practices   

This project has emerged from plans floated earlier this year to reconfigure the way Professional Services staff work, based on the Staff Pulse Surveys and the experience of remote working due to the Pandemic proving that many roles previously refused flexible working/working from home can be carried out effectively from home.  

It now appears that work to ‘reimagine working practices’ for PS staff will take place over a longer time frame than previously expected (12-24 months). The project will engage with staff across campus, including informal conversations with trade unions. 

UNISON is acutely aware that we have members in a variety of different roles, some of whom have worked on campus throughout the Pandemic, some of whom find working from home beneficial and some of whom find working from home really problematic for a variety of reasons. We are committed to finding the solutions that work for all members, but we also have to hold the University to account for its health, safety and welfare responsibilities. 

If you have concerns about the way this project will impact you, or can see ways that it might be a positive benefit, please let us know so we can feed this into the conversation. 

If the proposals have any impact on formal guidance and policy affecting staff (for example, lone working guidance, or the development of a remote working policy), the trade unions would expect formal negotiation with the University. 

Once again, we have established that this informal conversation doesn’t preclude formal consultation with trade unions on any firm proposals that come out of this process. 

USS (Universities Superannuation Scheme) pensions 

Staff appointed at G7 or above are automatically enrolled in the USS Pension Scheme while staff who ‘move up’ from G6 to G7 are now able to opt to remain in the Local Government Pension Scheme. A series of valuations of the USS has suggested that there is a huge deficit in the fund, which has led to both employers’ and employees’ contributions being raised to extremely high levels over the last three years. This situation looks set to continue. A minority of our branch members are in USS, but we are committed to supporting them, with support from UCU (who are leading the union negotiations on this at a national level, as they have the expertise and this mainly affects their members). 

A major problem with the rising employee contributions is that it significantly reduces take-home salaries, particularly for staff on Grade 7 or working part-time. We are aware that there is a high opt out rate amongst this group of staff, which of course has an impact when members reach retirement. The rising employer contributions are significant for all staff, as they affect the University’s overall financial situation (which in turn has an impact on measures such as ‘vacancy control’). 

UNISON member Anna Mackenzie is representing us on the University’s USS Working Group involved in responding to proposals and counter-proposals between the pension trustees and the employers’ umbrella body, Universities UK (UUK).  

UUK consulted with HE employers and proposed an alternative route to the USS Trustee’s proposal, which would be more realistic and fair to both employers and employees. The USS Trustee has now lodged a counter-proposal still priced above the UUK offer and requiring modifications to the covenant support measures. UUK have recently issued a further consultation with employers to discuss ways forward. Members will be updated when further news is available. 

Changes in your Branch Workplace Representative Team  

Ben Edwards is temporarily stepping back as a UNISON Workplace Representative while he focuses on a new job role. We are very grateful that he has agreed to continue as the Branch Treasurer and to use his experience to contribute to the Branch Executive Committee.  

Ben’s Workplace Representative duties are being covered by Yvonne Drakeley,the Branch Welfare and Equalities Officer. Yvonne successfully completed the TUC-accredited course for Workplace Representatives at the beginning of June and is starting to take on more duties, mentored and advised by the existing team of Desna Mackenzie and Katie Park-Walford.  

Labour Link 

Branch member Richard Ingham has written about his experience of being an agent for Labour Party candidates in council elections: 

“In the recent local elections I was asked to stand as Agent for our 3 brand new Labour Party candidates in a brand new ward for Chorley Borough Council. Sadly, we didn’t manage to get any of them elected, falling just 32 votes short of taking the third seat, but it was a solid start given the short build up to the election and local circumstances, which we are already building on towards May 2022. It was a great opportunity to learn more about the elections and party processes, local democracy in general and I would highly recommend getting more involved with your local branches and groups.” 

Richard works in the Library in the Digital Innovation and Research Services team.  

We’d love to hear from any other Labour Link members who want share experiences of supporting Labour. 

Joanne Leeman  

Labour Link Officer  

j.leeman@lancaster.ac.uk 

Health & Safety 

Fortnightly Health and Safety Committee Sub- Group meetings continue, covering a range of issues arising from increased activity on campus. Those paying attention to the University Covid statistics will have noted a sharp rise in infections amongst students – we are monitoring this as it will also affect staff – but we also recently discovered that the figures on the website have occasionally included students quarantining after overseas travel, so we have asked HR to establish how long this has been going on and whether it has significantly distorted the figures reported on the University website. 

We are starting to see risk assessments being provided from various areas of the University which are increasing activity and are very happy to report that the quality of risk assessments is greatly improved! 

Desna Mackenzie is undergoing formal training as a Health & Safety representative, but we’re still on the lookout for a Health & Safety Officer for the branch committee – please get in touch if interested:  full training is provided, you make a significant contribution to your colleagues’ working lives –  and you get to find out all sorts of interesting things about what goes on in different areas you might otherwise never come across!  

Welfare  

Don’t forget that there are resources and support available to UNISON members in difficulty outside the workplace as well as within. Members experiencing financial and emotional difficulties can contact UNISON’s welfare charity, There for You, which provides a confidential advice and support service for members and their dependants.  

A proportion of Branch Funds are reserved for meeting members’ immediate financial needs (up to £250 to cover urgent essential expenditures). Please contact Yvonne Drakeley, the Branch Welfare Officer (y.drakeley@lancaster.ac.uk) if you feel you may need to access these funds. Requests will be treated in confidence and only shared with the other two Branch Officers who make up the Branch Welfare Subcommittee overseeing these funds. Branch information sharing and storage on member welfare issues- as for all other member information – is GDPR-compliant.  

Information also on the Welfare page of the Branch website.  

Working towards becoming a more inclusive and diverse Branch 

All the Branch Committee are committed to this agenda. Our Equalities Officer and other Branch Officers are active in all LU Diversity Forums – including LGBTQ+ Allies, Women’s Network and the Race Equality Network. We are currently engaging with UNISON’s democratic processes to advocate for making a change to how  members’ gender identities are recorded and are keen to connect our members with UNISON’s Regional Self Organising Groups for Black members, Disabled members, Women and those identifying as Lesbian,Gay, Bisexual or Transgender. We would love to benefit from having activists and officers with perspectives based on lived experience of any and all of these issues. Please get in touch with if you can get involved and help us better understand and represent all our members. 

Menopause is a workplace issue, it is a trade union issue, it is everyone’s issue and for that reason Lancaster University needs a menopause policy.  However, the employer is refusing to accept this.  The idea and research for a menopause policy was developed by Lancaster University Women’s Network from 2018 onwards and supported by the trade unions.  In April 2021 the policy document (which included a two-page policy and extensive guidelines) was, without warning, substantially amended and unilaterally downgraded by the employer to guidance only.  The guidance was presented as a fait accompli to the Network, to the unions, to the University’s EDI committee and on Monday at the Vice Chancellor’s meeting. 

Every month the unions meet with the employer in a formal, minuted Communications and Consultation Meeting (CCM), chaired by the Director of Strategic Planning and Governance.  CCM meets this Monday (28^th June 2021), and unions had jointly submitted a paper on the proposed Menopause Policy.  The unions had invited two of their women members, Pam Pickles and Rachel Beauchamp, recognised by their employer for their outstanding service, to speak to the paper.  The agenda item was pulled and their voices, speaking on behalf of members, have been silenced.

This is a joint unions statement in support of retracting menopause guidance and reinstating policy.  Policy and guidance are not the same, policy is enforceable, guidance is not.    

Following the establishment of Lancaster University Women’s Network in 2018 it became clear that support for and recognition of the challenges faced by staff in relation to the menopause and perimenopause was an issue. After gathering interest among the network and through wider university communications a grassroots group was established to pull together a menopause policy for Lancaster University. The group shared in their experiences and research on policies elsewhere and Pam Pickles took on the task of drafting a menopause policy for the university, spending several months researching, drafting and refining the policy while also consulting widely on its content. One of the drivers for Pam doing this was because of her own incredibly positive experience of going through a difficult menopause and being well supported by her line manager and colleagues, proof that there was good practice already at Lancaster- this wasn’t a project set to shame the institution but it was born out of celebration and positive experiences! It is to be noted that the group were not doing this work under the radar, the institution’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) Team were informed from the very offset and were supportive of this work being undertaken.

In late 2019 this policy was handed to the university EDI Team for consideration and progression through the necessary channels to hopefully enact the policy for the university. Envisioning that this would be a relatively straightforward process- who would object to a policy that supports approximately 50% of the workforce?

After promises that the document was being reviewed and a lot of prompting from Rachel Beauchamp in LU Women’s Network there was finally some hope when the policy was presented by UNISON on behalf of the Network at the CCM on the 26^th November 2020. The policy was positively received and promises were made on the development of a timeline for how the policy would be presented and worked through the various committees.

Then, silence. It all went quiet and there was an assumption that the policy was working its way through the various internal channels. In April the Women’s Network was presented with the guidance document – no explanation about the change from policy, during a meeting in May the unions spotted that the policy was now being referred to as ‘guidance’ and challenged the change in language, and then the June EDI Committee was informed that it would now be a menopause guidance document rather than a menopause policy. All of this is a result of decisions made within the University’s governance system, with zero discussion with the trade unions, Pam Pickles or the original group that started this work.

This isn’t just the trade unions that are being ignored in this fight. This is hard working, committed LU staff that are being pushed aside; those who committed their own personal time to form a group and research, develop and write a policy that has been completely disregarded without any explanation. Over Pam’s 18 years of service to Lancaster she has shown exemplary commitment to the institution; serving on Senate, winning a Dean’s award, completing internal training and development. She has done EVERYTHING that our employer would want a member of staff to do yet she hasn’t been included in any discussions or even offered a courtesy email on the development of her work. What message is that giving to those staff who are committed and are actively trying to make the institution a better place?

Over the past couple of weeks trade unions have been offered a number of reasons as to why this has progressed as guidance rather than policy:

• Guidance is more flexible. For who? Policies are reviewed on a regular basis and if they require changes they can happen! What could really be meant is that guidance can be changed easily and quietly without anybody noticing.
• Guidance avoids adding to an already long list of policies. This justification sends a worrying message- why cut off here? How many policies is too many? Who decided this number?
• Guidance complements and supports our existing policies. If the existing policies were sufficient to support staff experiencing the menopause then why do so many staff feel unsupported, alone, punished and in some cases forced out of their roles?

These justifications were repeated again in a wider forum at the recent All Staff Meeting but they just don’t hold any weight. Why are they so resistant to this? What is it about the female anatomy that is so terrifying to our decision makers?

The 2020 People Strategy which is still being promoted on the institutional website states that the university pertains to ‘Celebrate diversity within our workforce, recognising how all staff contribute to and enhance the overall success of the university’ this certainly isn’t the case on this occasion. It identifies one of the core values as ‘Working together to support the development of the university’ again, not being shown here. Finally, it lists one of the institution’s behaviours as ‘Engage with, hear from and listen to all staff as the university continues to develop and pursue its aspirations’, humorous really under the circumstances!

Introducing a menopause policy at Lancaster University could have been an easy win. It could have been a perfect way to show support and solidarity with the workforce. It could have been a perfect way to show commitment to the Athena SWAN agenda. It could have provided some positive publicity to an institution that is still battling with a mean hourly gender pay gap of 25.03%. But it isn’t, the employer has dug their heels in and is refusing to have a discussion with us on this. Despite following all the correct processes it has even been removed as an agenda item on our next CCM. Why are they refusing to discuss this with members? What are they hiding? What are they wanting to avoid saying?

This is a fight that does not end here. Your trade unions are in agreement, staff are in agreement, there should be a menopause policy at Lancaster University and we will not be silenced with a weak tick boxing exercise of ‘menopause guidance’.

We encourage members to email the Vice Chancellor (a.j.schofield@lancaster.ac.uk) and Deputy Vice Chancellor (s.bradley@lancaster.ac.uk) to ask that the university demonstrates its commitment to EDI and support for staff wellbeing by adopting menopause guidance as policy as was originally intended.

Lancaster University Branches of UCU, UNISON and Unite

25 Jun 2021

Following our last post (29 Apr 21), conversations with the University about arrangements for TOIL/overtime payments over the exam period have continued.

A position has been arrived at by the University which is marginally better than the previous one, and which the unions are not 100% satisfied with, but we believe we’ve got as far as we can with this. 

Managers have now been issued guidance regarding TOIL and overtime over the exam period – the full guidance document has been circulated to members via email – but as a branch we want to emphasise several things: 

• Working additional hours is voluntary – if you do not want to work these hours for whatever reason you can say ‘no’. 
• For Grades 1-6, the University is now paying overtime on weekdays only once a member of staff has accrued 36.5 hours TOIL (regardless of how TOIL has been built up). 
• After this, overtime worked on weekdays is paid at x1 your normal hourly rate (plain time), up to 36.5 hours (this is your actual hours worked, beyond any TOIL accrued)
• Time worked beyond 36.5 hours on a weekday counts as a ‘sixth day’ and is due at x1.5 your normal hourly rate (time and a half. 
• If time worked on weekdays goes into a seventh working day over time is due at x2 your normal rate (double time) 
• Any time worked on Saturdays or Sundays should be paid at agreed overtime rates (x 1.5 for Saturdays, x 2 for Sundays) 

As previously, if you are taking any additional hours worked as TOIL, we recommend that you agree an arrangement with your manager for how and when you will be able to take the time back without creating extra pressure in your regular duties. 

If you have any further questions or concerns, please email the branch and we will see what we can do to support.

Over the last few days professional services staff in departments across the University have been asked to agree to work outside their contracted hours, including evenings and weekends, to support students during the exam period. Despite all three trade unions raising questions about how the process would be managed back in Feb 2021, it is only in the last week that we have received concrete proposals, at the same time as they were circulated to departments.

We know how hard our members have worked over the pandemic, and we know how long hours in difficult situations have led to many of you building up TOIL and/or annual leave that you simply don’t have time to take. We therefore asked that any hours worked outside of contracted hours in order to cover the exam period be paid at non-contractual overtime rates. Disappointingly the University is only offering Grades 1-6 TOIL at flat rate during the working week, and overtime or TOIL at 1.5 at weekends, but only if this exceeds 36.5 hours a week.   

UNISON feel that this proposal is inadequate, and fails to acknowledge the huge workloads and wide variety of personal circumstances that members are juggling. TOIL is not equivalent to adequate overtime payments, especially if you cannot find time to take it! We want to underline to all members that if your department attempts to press you into working additional hours to cover exams, you have the right to refuse, and should not be made to feel guilty for saying no. 

We understand that staff are deeply committed to students, and to supporting them through the exam process, but the University should have properly consulted with unions (and, indeed departments!) and discussed these arrangements months ago.

If you are considering agreeing to work these hours, we advise that a confirmed arrangement with your manager for how and when you will be able to take the time back without creating extra pressure in your regular duties should be agreed at the same time as the additional hours you will be working.

We are continuing to formally pursue this with the University, and will let you know if there are any updates.

Thanks to everyone who attended the AGM at the end of February, it was great to see so many people attend, and a last-minute piece of information about our rules added the adrenaline rush that every good AGM needs! We heard some really important views, and received good challenges on how member information is recorded, which we are in the process of raising with the regional office. Draft minutes have been circulated to members via email.

You might have noticed that the Branch Officers essentially remain the same people, with a little shuffling about of roles – we’d love it if more people joined us, and we’re particularly looking for someone to take on the role of Health & Safety Officer. We also have vacancies for an Education Officer and Lifelong Learning Co-ordinator. 

As a branch we know that we have many members who aren’t directly employed by the University – we are still here to support you, and you’re also included in any calls out for information, become a Branch Officer, etc. 

As ever, please get in touch if you would like more information about Branch Officer roles, or if you need our support. 

In solidarity 

Desna Mackenzie 

Chair 

UNISON Lancaster University 

unison@lancaster.ac.uk 

www.lancaster.ac.uk/users/unison/  

—

Members’ themed discussion 

Our next members’ discussion will be on the topic of ‘University plans for professional services space’, and will take place Weds 24 Mar, 13:00-14:00. A link to the meeting has been sent to members via email.

If you weren’t able to attend the VC’s All Staff meeting on 8 Mar 2021, you will have missed a conversation about the outcome of the ‘working from home survey’: a huge amount of staff expressed the desire to continue working from home in some way, shape or form, once the pandemic is over, and it looks like University management may be using this opportunity to remove dedicated professional services office space, replacing it with teaching or laboratory space. Members have flagged this issue up in previous meetings, and so we thought it would be good to have a full conversation about this. 

‘Is workload a dirty word?’ 

You might have seen the recent article on the Staff Portal titled ‘Working from home survey results‘. Most of the text is lifted almost word for word from a report that Organisational Development produced and UNISON has been given access to. It’s interesting to see what’s not included (see the highlighted text below). 

Staff Portal article: ‘The main reasons reported as causing a negative impact on wellbeing are factors associated with the pandemic and, as a result, working from home on a full-time basis, such as the lack of connection with colleagues, disruption resulting from home schooling, caring and personal circumstances, social isolation and difficulty in striking a balance between home and working life.’ 

Survey report: ‘The main reasons reported as causing a negative impact on wellbeing are factors associated with the pandemic and, as a result, working from home on a fulltime basis, i.e. lack of connection with colleagues, disruption resulting from home schooling / personal circumstances, social isolation, difficulty in striking a balance between home and working life etc. In addition, a large number reported workload as being a key factor. Many also commented on workload in the free text comments.’ 

It seems that members of senior management at the University are reluctant to acknowledge the impact of workloads on wellbeing despite UNISON bringing this up in multiple meetings and stressing that the University needs to take action to reduce workloads. We will continue to pressure the University to reduce workloads. 

Labour Link 

An email about a forthcoming event has been circulated to all Labour Link levy-paying members. If you’re unsure whether you are a Labour Link member or not, please contact us at unison@lancaster.ac.uk and we will check for you. We know that there have been issues with the UNISON bulk email system, so we’re also including the information in this newsletter: 

Save the Date:   

Tuesday 30^th March 2021, 12pm – 1pm  

An online meeting of Labour Link members featuring speech by Cllr Erica Lewis  

Labour Link levy-paying members are invited to the first meeting of Labour Link members of the Lancaster University Branch of UNISON. The meeting will be held via MS Teams.  

We are delighted to announce that our inaugural meeting will feature an address by Lancaster City Council Leader Cllr Erica Lewis regarding matters for the local elections on 6^th May 2021.  

In addition to City Council Leader, Erica is the current Labour County Councillor and candidate for Lancaster South East, the Division which encompasses both Lancaster Uni and Cumbria Uni (Lancaster) campuses. Erica is a UNISON member and was a PhD student at Lancaster and is currently a Lecturer at Cumbria.  

The meeting will be held via MS Teams and there will be an opportunity to ask questions and virtually meet other Labour Link levy-paying members.  

Please save the date and look out for further details via email and the Members’ Team.   

Health & Safety update 

As the government has announced a series of dates for further relaxing of Covid-19 restrictions we will begin to see more presence of students on campus, and this increase in activity is likely to have an impact on members. If you have any concerns about Health & Safety on campus, or whilst working from home, please get in touch. 

UNISON, and the other trade unions, have asked for the following information from the University: 

1. Please can we have an update on number of students expected back on campus between now and 8 Mar 2021, and subsequent trigger dates laid out in the government ‘roadmap’ (29 Mar, 12 Apr, 17 May, 21 Jun)? 

2. What is the plan to manage increased numbers, and what is corresponding increase in work activity around those same trigger dates? 

3. What is the expected effect on different categories of staff: e.g. cleaning services, porters & security, face-to-face teaching staff, colleges and student support staff? Will an increase in staffing on campus be required to manage increased activity? 

4. Are staff going to be required to come back to individual offices, or will there be centralised areas to return to? 

5. What are plans for the reopening of hospitality across campus, both in terms of staffing and how this will be monitored in terms of H&S?  

6. What plans are there to manage social gatherings of students in residences, and the impact of these on staff? 

7. Has an analysis of the level of First Aid provision on campus with respect to increased activity taken place? 

8. What are plans for increased safe public transport for students and staff on and off site? 

9. What are plans for continued reporting of Covid case statistics - will the rolling average be reintroduced? 

10. Please update on conversations with PH bodies – in October the spike in infections on campus was somewhat anticipated by PH officials, and we would like to understand what expectations are for the coming months? 

11. This is a comment rather than a question – the trade unions see this coming change in activity as an opportunity for the University to reinforce health & safety communications to managers and operational areas, especially with respect to increased number of students / student activity, ventilation, social distancing, face coverings, etc. 

We expect to cover these in forthcoming Health & Safety Communication and Consultation Sub Group meetings in the coming weeks. 

Cleaners terms and conditions update 

Following the announcement at the end of last year that the University has finally decided to harmonise annual leave across the different grades from Oct 2021, UNISON and Unite have agreed to continue conversations about proposed changes to terms and conditions for cleaners. This has been a long running process of negotiation, and newer members may not be aware of what has happened to date. UNISON are working with Unite to set up face-to-face conversations with cleaners about this when government restrictions allow. This isn’t likely to be before July 2021. 

Professional Services Conference 

UNISON, alongside Unite and UCU, will be running a ‘virtual stand’ as part of the Professional Services conference between 19-23 Apr 2021. Our stand will take place between 12:00-14:00 on Tues 20 Apr. Once we have further details we will circulate, but this is an opportunity to encourage colleagues who are curious about what unions do, and the benefits of being a member, to attend, and hopefully will be a way to increase our membership. There’s power in a union! 

Survey on the financial impact of modified working arrangements 

Thanks to all members who participated in this survey. We had a response rate of over 10%, and respondees were spread across grades 4-7. 

The responses we received revealed how complex and varied member’s situations and experiences have been over the last year so we are still analysing it for common themes and consistent messages on which to base representations to management.  

However, one clear theme of concern to us are members with disabilities who have spent large amounts on office equipment and furniture to enable working from home. If you have been in this situation and would like further support or to make us aware of your situation and expenditures, please get in touch, regardless of whether you completed the survey or not. 

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 

unison@lancaster.ac.uk 

www.lancaster.ac.uk/users/unison/ 

— 

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. 

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.