Welcome to UCL UCU
UCU is the trade union and professional association representing
university staff across the sector, formed in June 2006 by the amalgamation
of AUT and Natfhe.
UCU is UCL’s recognised trade union for lecturing staff,
research staff, administrators, computer staff, librarians, and
related staff grades. PhD students who carry out teaching duties
can join on a special rate.
UCL UCU is a large trade union branch with over 1,500 members.
Some of our members have permanent ‘core funded’ positions,
while others - mainly research staff - are on what UCL
refers to as “open-ended contracts on fixed funding”.
In short, if you are employed at UCL, teach, research or support,
but are not currently a member of UCU, we would encourage you to
join.
Staff
on clerical and manual grades should join UNISON,
those on technical and scientific support roles, UNITE.
We support our colleagues in the other UCL trade union branches,
and encourage all college workers to join their appropriate trade
union.
Statute 18 'reform'
| LATEST: UCL has
made a new proposal, available here,
which UCU members have voted to reject. Although it includes
some improvements on the very dangerous proposal made last year,
its provisions still erode academic protections at UCL to a
significant degree. In particular, the current provisions for
appealing dismissals of academic staff are disestablished. |
UCL Senior Management has announced to staff that it wishes to
'reform' the relevant Statute which lays down procedures for considering
the dismissal of academic staff, whether by redundancy or for any
other reason. They have initiated a consultation web page for staff
comment and have met with representatives of the trade unions, including
UCU.
After overwhelming opposition in College defeated the first
proposal (91 out of 102 responses to the UCL consultation web
page expressed clear opposition and made detailed critiques), UCL
SMT made a second
proposal which is currently before College.
Although the second proposal does represent an improvement on the
first, we do not believe that it is sufficient. To understand why
we recommend colleagues compare it with the current
Statute 18 and ask themselves what rights are being lost.
The new revised Statute proposal:
- removes the right to legal representation for staff to
be made redundant
- replaces the Redundancy Committee with a Standing Committee
on Academic Freedom (SCAF) which has similar powers in cases
of organisational change (closing departments, shedding jobs etc)
- however decisions of the SCAF cannot be appealed
- this committee is also available to provide advice
on the interpretation of ‘academic freedom’ in appeals
against dismissal, or in grievance appeals
- provides Council with some powers to defend academic freedom -
but this is still limited to lecturers, readers and professors.
More information...
News |
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External links |
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