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Reminder: Extraordinary General Meeting today, 3-4pm on Zoom - no return to UCL until it’s safe

19 May 2020

This is a reminder of today’s Extraordinary General Meeting, which will take place at 3-4pm on Zoom to discuss when and how staff will be enabled to safely return to UCL buildings.

To attend this meeting please RSVP using this form. At 2pm we will send out the link to join the meeting to all who pre-register.

As we previously reported, UCL management is saying that staff should not feel under pressure to return to buildings, and that any return to the workplace will need to be managed safely. Currently some essential workers are on-site; colleagues are performing Covid-19 research and support, and we need to protect them. 

This situation will likely develop over the next weeks and months. Though some staff may not be expected to return until the new academic year, other staff, particularly research staff unable to work from home, may be under pressure to return to labs much sooner. UCL has announced that they intend to implement some ‘pilot’ studies to identify parameters of a safe return. 

An important battle on this question is taking place in our schools. The Government is clearly ignoring the risks of children as bearers of infection inadvertently recirculating the virus. The British Medical Association has backed teaching unions opposed to a premature opening of schools, as has UCU.

We previously pre-circulated Motion 1 below. We have received one amendment to this motion. See Appendix below.

In addition to debate on this question, the meeting will discuss the Government Furlough scheme, how UCL is using it, and what it means for staff. If you are told you will be furloughed what rights do you have? If you can’t work, can you ask to be furloughed?

The committee would also like to propose a second motion supporting a financial donation to a solidarity fund in support of international students that have been stranded in the UK (Motion 2 below).

UCL UCU Executive Committee

Appendix

Motion 1: No return to UCL until it’s safe

 UCL UCU notes:

  1. The Government’s announcement on 10 May of an active promotion of a return to work by the government, regardless of the daily death rate still remaining high, the absence of an effective test, trace, and isolate regime, and the announcement that schools in England will open on 1 June for some primary school children.
  2. Images of packed commuter trains and tubes in and around London within a day of this announcement.
  3. That London is at the epicentre of the UK pandemic in terms of both cases and deaths.
  4. UCL UCU survey data indicating that some two thirds of research staff have a journey of half an hour or more on public transport.

UCL UCU welcomes:

  1. UCL Management's stated commitment to staff that returning to work will be carried out in a considered and careful manner and involve consultation with unions and staff
  2. The TUC letter to the Government stating that there will be no return to work until it is safe to do so.
  3. Over 500,000 signatures on NEU's petition against opening schools unsafely.

UCL UCU recognises that the responsible position of any public authority is to ensure the safety of all its citizens. Returning to a UCL workplace in the absence of a vaccine involves two specific types of risk:

  1. Risks to the individual: i.e. the risk that an employee on returning to work contracts Covid-19 and passes it on to their household.
  2. Risks to wider society: the risk that an employee on returning to work spreads Covid-19 to other workers and public service users, contributing to a second surge in cases (including through unnecessary journeys on public transport).

UCL UCU resolves:

  1. That we oppose returning to workplaces until it is safe to do so.
  2. That every staff member deserves to be safe at work and on their journey to and from work, and must be instructed and supported accordingly. Members of their household are also entitled to be safe.
  3. Risk assessments for every single building (including sub-areas), and organisational unit (department, and sub-units, e.g. each research group and individual project, each teaching module and cohort) must be carried out, in consultation with union reps, prior to their reopening/resuming.
    1. UCL must ensure that staff are supported to complete a personal risk assessment for themselves, their household and their commute.
    2. Clear guidance about dealing with ‘the public’ (including research subjects and students) must be issued to frontline staff and managers.
    3. Managers will be responsible for ensuring that risk assessments are communicated to all staff, consulted with staff and followed.
  4. Basic principles of risk assessments must be followed, noting the risks to individuals and society. If risk cannot be eliminated it must be mitigated.
  5. Only essential services should be run. For research projects, Covid-19 research projects and those that are strictly time-limited could be deemed ‘essential’.
    1. Where work can be carried out in a safer way it should. Thus where work can be done from home it should be done from home, with appropriate DSE assessments in place.
    2. Adaptations to face-to-face activity could include: using screens, masks, gloves, wash stations; limiting public numbers and enforcing social distancing measures.
    3. There can be no safe return to hot desking, where desks and IT equipment  are shared between staff. Staff must be allocated their own desks and equipment.
    4. Workers who refuse to return to work if they believe it is unsafe for them to do so should not be disciplined. Where a dispute arises it should be handled through mediation and discussion and not through disciplinary measures. Alternative actions may include offering temporary alternative work and telephone counselling.

Amendment to motion 1

In the "UCL UCU resolves":

  • Point 3.a, add at end "This will ensure that adequate measures are taken to protect vulnerable employees and those caring for vulnerable people."
  • Point 5, first sentence, insert changes in bold: "Only essential services should be placed under consideration to be run."
  • Add new point 6: "No worker should be compelled to return to work before it is safe to do so by fears for their job security. To prevent this, UCL UCU calls on UCL to make additional guarantees for everyone’s employment, beyond that currently offered to fixed-term research staff, and independent of the government's furlough scheme."

Motion 2 - donation to Universities Resist Border Controls fund to assist international students unable to return

UCL UCU resolves to donate £500 to the Universities Resist Border Controls fund to assist international students that are suffering hardship due to the Covid 19 pandemic.