General Meeting: Return to Campus? + HE Sector Conference for national Jobs campaign, Tue 15 Sept

Please RSVP and we will send you the meeting ‘join link’ on Tuesday. 

We have two items on the agenda: 

1. Return to Campus? What should our policy be on Face to Face teaching given the rise in Covid-19 cases? Including Motion 1 for debate (see Appendix).
2. UCU Special Higher Education Sector Conference (SHESC) to build a national campaign to defend jobs as part of our HE “Four Fights” campaign.
   • Election of delegates 
   • Motion 2 (see Appendix)

Motion 1 concerns our local stance towards calls for Face to Face teaching. If Motion 2 were passed by UCL UCU it would be submitted for delegates at the SHESC to vote on and then become national policy.

The SHESC is a one-day online event where delegates will discuss and vote on motions. Delegates are entitled to time off work to attend. If you are interested in attending, please email ucu@ucl.ac.uk. Election of eight delegates will take place in the meeting. 

Members are entitled to submit amendments to these motions and/or to submit other motions. If you have any enquiries about this, please email ucu@ucl.ac.uk. We aim to circulate any updated motions, amendments etc on Monday.

UCL UCU executive committee 

Appendix

Motion 1: No return to unsafe workplaces; no face-to-face teaching unless educationally necessary

UCL UCU notes:

1. The General Secretary’s call for all universities to teach online in Term 1 at least.
2. UCU’s Five Tests* for a safe return to campus.
3. Official figures record 43,000 deaths from Covid-19. Excess deaths since March 2020 are at least 60,000.
4. Government calls for a return to workplaces.
5. Independent SAGE, SAGE and WHO believe social distancing, test, track and isolate and the use of PPE are central to control pandemics.  

UCL UCU believes:

1. The General Secretary’s call on universities and colleges is correct.
2. UCU’s Five Tests have not been met.
3. The Government's call to return to offices is motivated by business concerns rather than public safety.
4. A second wave of Covid-19 infections is increasingly likely.

UCL UCU resolves:

1. To call on members to refuse to teach face-to-face, and to work remotely until UCU’s tests have been met. Exceptions for face-to-face teaching are where the programme team judge it absolutely necessary and H&S reps approve arrangements, i.e. to ensure students with additional communication needs are able to participate, or for lessons which strictly require students to be present, such as surgery.
2. To call on UCU to organise a series of sector-based "No return to unsafe workplace" online meetings.

*See UCU's Five Tests

Motion 2: For a sector-wide fight over jobs

Conference notes the successful mobilisation of members in the ‘Four Fights’ campaign and the fact that the existing 2020-21 claim builds on it.

Conference calls for a new claim building on the existing joint union JNCHES claim. There should be no retreat on pay, while at the same time we should build a serious, detailed fight on jobs. 

Conference resolves that the new claim should include the following concrete demands:

1. Minimum standards for local policies including:
   • redundancy collective and individual consultation,
   • redeployment and other forms of redundancy avoidance,
   • extending minimum notice periods from three to six months,
   
   enshrining equal treatment for fixed term and hourly paid staff, and building in thorough equality monitoring.
    
2. A sector-wide agreement for redeployment between universities and colleges facilitated by the current online working conditions, with a JNCHES consultative subcommittee to oversee it.

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