Hanukkah (or Hanukah or Chanukah), which means “dedication” in Hebrew, begins on the 25th of Kislev on the Hebrew calendar and usually falls in November or December (10th December this year). Often called the Festival of Lights, the holiday is celebrated with the lighting of the menorah, traditional foods, games and gifts. Here’s a personal reflection on this event by social worker and blogger Ermintrude @ermintrude

Our negotiators met with management at the Joint Consultative and Negotiating Forum (JCNF) on 18th November to seek a commitment from the University that no member of staff should be forced to work on campus during the pandemic, following the mandate given by Cardiff UCU members at the General Meeting on 6th September.

The University refused to accept that staff are being coerced into working on campus or to make a public commitment to prevent such cases. As a result, on Tuesday 1st December we wrote to the VC to invoke the disputes resolution procedure in the following terms:

“Cardiff University has failed to give a clear and public commitment not to compel any member of staff or worker to attend face-to-face work on campus while the COVID-19 pandemic continues to pose a significant public health risk.”

We hope, as ever, that this dispute can be resolved through negotiation and that the branch does not need to resort to industrial action, but in the face of the University’s intransigence on this so far, it is likely that we will soon be asking for your views on a ballot for industrial action.

Cardiff UCU held its last General Meeting of 2020 on Wednesday. As well as an update on the dispute from Chris Graves (branch Negotiating Committee Co-ordinator), members heard from our branch Health & Safety Officer, Andy Skyrme, on the ongoing risk assessments for buildings across the university.

UCU General Secretary, Jo Grady, joined us for questions and discussion on national strategies. She emphasised that the number of branches already in dispute or initiating disputes with their employers is giving the national negotiations more leverage on demands, namely on reviewing face to face teaching strategies.

In response to concerns raised by UCU regarding the working conditions of hourly paid teaching staff and postgraduates with teaching responsibilities, the University has set up a Teaching Delivery Governance Group, with the following objectives:

1. in consultation with relevant parties, to create policies which are fit for purpose to deliver teaching in a flexible manner across the institution;

2. to review how both teaching and scholarship are approached in our academic career pathways;

3. to review progression between grades 5 to 7 on the academic career pathways;

4. to review the engagement status for PGR students in relation to any form of paid work they undertake;

5. to outline plans for training and support in relation to Teaching activities for staff on a-typical contracts and PGR students;

6. to implement agreed proposals in a consistent manner across all Schools and relevant Professional Services’ departments.

The group met for the first time on the 19th June, with our two UCU representatives, Rowan Campbell and Renata Medeiros. Some recommendations from the group have already been made and include a revision of all current fractional and framework contracts to ensure that they accurately reflect the hours worked. Meetings on the three specific working groups regarding 1) terms of engagement of hourly paid teaching staff, 2) academic career pathways and career progression and 3) postgraduate students, are now happening across the university. If you have any evidence of bad practice in any of these areas or any other aspects you would like to discuss that might be relevant to this work, please get in touch with us.

The University is carrying out a Gender Equal Pay Audit and UCU was asked for input in their first draft. Our Equality and Diversity and Anti-casualisation officers, Abyd Quinn Aziz and Renata Medeiros, met with Diggory Steele-Perkins, the Head of Policy, Reward and Employee Relations at Cardiff University and proposed that gender representation across grades should be considered alongside average pay per grade, that average salaries should be compared using both medians and means and an indication of variability should be included, and that when a very small number of staff are represented in any particular gender/grade, any conclusions about the gender pay gap should be taken with caution. The results of the audit will be shared with staff after the report is approved by the University Executive Board.

You can read the University’s response to the UCU regarding Christmas closure days here.

The Welsh Government has committed to placing carbon reduction at the centre of its Covid recovery plans. However, the shift towards sustainability cannot be separated from social justice. During the next decade, we foresee these issues impacting upon our professional lives. To ensure that this transition is fair, UCU is working closely with TUC Wales to drive a green recovery and a just transition; building strength in our workplaces and liberating the expertise that sit in our institutions.

To join the UCU Wales Green Network meeting please email kwilliams@ucu.org.uk and provide the email address to which the MS Teams invite should be sent. Our Cardiff UCU Environmental officer, Paul Rock, will be among the contributors.