There will be an all-member General Meeting for the branch on Wednesday 12th June at 1.10pm in Committee Room 1 in the Glamorgan Building.
We will discuss, and share info about:
Full details of the GM, including the Agenda, can be found here. Lunch will be provided!
The anti-casualisation working group held an open meeting on Tuesday 4th June to work on an “Anti-Casualisation Manifesto” as a base document to inform our campaign and future negotiations with the University management. This manifesto is based on the premise that secure employment is that which guarantees continuity of gainful employment (e.g. ongoing contracts with consistent work and payment).
We’re aware, based on our own research and many examples of members seeking support through case-work, that Cardiff University uses contracts which do not fit this description in a wide variety of situations in which this would not be necessary, with dramatic and damaging consequences to staff.
We have initiated conversations with University management about these issues and we will soon submit a claim to demand the University to engage with UCU in reviewing the use of fixed-term and atypical contracts across the University and work towards providing secure working conditions to *all* staff.
We will be presenting results from our precarity survey and discussing our manifesto and our claim to the University at our General Meeting next Wednesday, as well as sharing more widely, and we would value the input from all Cardiff UCU members!
There are a number of vacancies on Senate, to which it is essential we nominate UCU members for election so our perspectives get aired and considered at the highest level. Details are below, and UCU members tend to meet and confer in advance of meetings. If you are considering standing and would like to discuss it, or need somebody to propose or second your nomination, please email ucu@cardiff.ac.uk. Nominations close at noon on 26 June.
There are vacancies for a Senate term up to 31 July 2022 for members of staff:
There are also vacancies for staff from each of the Colleges and Professional Services directorates at grade 5 and above to serve on Court.
Click here for more information on the vacancies or to get a nomination form
Or email Committees@cardiff.ac.uk
Two super-important motions were moved on our behalf at the UCU Congress a few weeks back by our branch President Ryan Prout;
Research by Liz Morrish (who spoke recently at Cardiff in an event supported by us) identifies widespread structural issues with workplace stress in UK HE.
UCU Congress in 2019 also saw an important fringe event (co-organised by Cardiff UCU branch President Ryan Prout) about the epidemic of stress and bullying in the workplace. Among other things, stats were shared form the UK’s Education Support Partnership charity.
Counsellors at Education Support Partnership, the only charity dedicated to improving the wellbeing and mental health of the whole education workforce throughout the UK, dealt with a record 9,615 cases between April 2018 and the end of March 2019, the largest number in the charity’s history. At the same time, its counsellors continue to report that more calls are coming from those already experiencing a crisis. Read more here.
Cardiff UCU continues to campaign on unmanageable workloads at Cardiff University, and along with the Union nationally is seeking to use Health and Safety legislation to pursue its claims and force recognition and changes. To find out more or get involved, or want help negotiating unrealistic workload demands, email ucu@cardiff.ac.uk.
If you are experiencing mental health difficulties and need someone to listen now, please, please, please ring the Samaritans on 116123, call the University’s outsourced and confidential employee assistance programme Care First on 0800 174319.
Here is more info on support provided by the University to staff.
The Ethics for USS campaign have made us aware of this survey being run by the Department for Work and Pensions.
If you could all fill it in and ask your friends (whatever pension scheme they are in) to do so, that would be great!
Background: Pension schemes like USS constantly use a definition of Fiduciary Duty which *only* takes into account monetary return and ignores ethical and environmental concerns. If the legislation were clearer, they would have to take members views into account.