The University has confirmed that it will not compensate staff for additional household expenses incurred while working from home – see the intranet
If you are required to work from home, you may be able to claim tax relief of up to £6 per week to cover some expenses. See the HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) website for details.
Following the GM vote on 16th September that no member of staff should be forced to work on campus during the pandemic, we submitted our demands to UEB and received this reply. We will meet with them on 18th November to begin negotiations on this. If we cannot resolve these issues through negotiations, we will consult members about moving into dispute including industrial action.
A united workforce is strategic in negotiations; please get in touch if you have any concerns or questions, to keep us updated on any developments in your schools or departments or if you would like to be more directly involved in these negotiations.
We recently surveyed members on their feelings towards working on campus in various contexts. 285 members responded. In summary, we found:
212 members (74%) do not feel safe to return to working on campus.
188 (65%) do not think it is safe to deliver face-to-face teaching on campus.
194 (68%) do not agree teaching staff should deliver face-to-face teaching for students, even if this teaching could be delivered online.
149 (52%) disagree it is safe for staff to provide professional services support on campus.
Members have mixed views on whether it is safe for staff to conduct research on campus.
We found that, when it comes to return to campus working, members:
The current workload policy asks Schools to publish workload allocation information for 2020/21 to individual staff within “reasonable timelines” to support a “more transparent working environment”. As a minimum, the information provided by your School should consist of the number of students you deal with, your total number of teaching contact hours and the titles of your managerial roles. If you are an academic member of staff and your school has not shared this information with you, as a first step you should ask your Head of School or school manager to provide it. If they refuse, please contact your UCU Dep Rep or the UCU office.
If you have not yet told us how you feel about the return to campus, you still have time to complete our survey.
The survey will close at close it at 12 noon on Wednesday 14th October.
It will take around 3 minutes to complete. We will use the findings of the survey to inform our industrial strategy and response to management.
A group of Cardiff University students organised a protest last week against tuition fees. Cardiff UCU offered them our solidarity and full support in this fight as part of our objection to the current fee-based HE system and associated increased casualisation and workload, which compromises safety for finances. You can read the speech prepared by our anti-casualisation officer Renata Medeiros Mirra here.
The People’s Assembly is organising a socially distanced open-air protest to mark the UK Day of Action, this Saturday 17th October at 1pm by the Cardiff City Hall. This is an important time for all of us to come together to protect workers in the hard times ahead. Please consider joining and bringing solidarity from UCU. Our branch president, Lucy Riglin, will be among the speakers. Details can be found on Facebook.
Your answers to the questions in the following survey are crucial in determining our next steps. It will take around 3 minutes to complete.
We have had reports of University senior managers pressuring, forcing, and bullying staff into face-to-face teaching they feel is unsafe. We would like to hear how you feel about the return to campus working, face-to-face teaching and what actions you are willing to take by responding to this survey.
We will use the findings of the survey to inform our industrial strategy and response to management.
If you have been told to return to campus and you do not feel it is safe for you to do so, raise your concerns with you line manager. There is guidance on risk assessments, employers’ legal duties and how to raise concerns on our website here.
Guidance from Welsh Government indicates that there is a requirement to work from home where practicable. We understand this to mean that face-to-face teaching that is not necessary should be avoided. If your manager says they are unable to agree to working from home, ask them to explain why it is not reasonably practicable to work from home.
The attached briefing sets out the legal position on health and safety in the workplace and includes advice on Section 44 of the Employment Rights Act 1996 allowing employees to remove themselves (a) in circumstances of danger which the employee reasonably believed to be serious and imminent and which they could not reasonably have been expected to avert, they left (or proposed to leave) or (while the danger persisted) refused to return to their place of work or any dangerous part of their place of work, or (e) in circumstances of danger which the employee reasonably believed to be serious and imminent, they took (or proposed to take) appropriate steps to protect themselves or other persons from the danger.
A united workforce is strategic in negotiations. You and your colleagues at work together have the power to ensure our working environment and society are able to meet our needs in these challenging times
Cardiff UCU is concerned that the All Wales risk assessment is not protecting our vulnerable members from being forced back to work.
If you are under pressure to return to campus when you feel it is unsafe for you to do so, we would like to hear from you. Please email ucu@cardiff.ac.uk in confidence.