Newcastle University UCU Branch Newsletter – March 2026
Northumbria UCU and the threat to Pensions
Many thanks to colleagues who have shown solidarity by visiting Northumbria University UCU’s picket lines. They have announced new strike days (16, 17, 25, 26, 27 March and 20-24 April) and there will be a national rally on Wednesday 25 March. Their moral and financial solidarity was invaluable in our dispute last year.
They have invited members to the following meeting over the attacks on the Teachers’ Pension Scheme (used for staff at post-92 universities) and the serious implications for the USS scheme (the scheme used in pre-1992 universities, like us) as well as the conditional indexation issue being advocated by our employers (diminishing the inflation-proofing of our pension). TPS Pensions attack and the future of USS Pension scheme: Monday 9 March, 12.30 – 2pm. Zoom: https://tinyurl.com/UCUpensionmtg-090326 . This is an important meeting for the future of our pensions. All welcome.
Our Workload and the Working Week are equality and health and safety issues
Members are relaying several concerns that we will raise with the management at Wednesday’s Joint Negotiating Committee.
Firstly, official communications have indicated some worrying aspects of the university’s policy on our working week suggesting that we can be timetabled for work from 9-6.30 Monday to Friday and that existing custom and practice regarding flexibility of working from home (namely the choice of research day) is being challenged. Members who commute, who have caring responsibilities, who need reasonable adjustments, who have difficulty striking a work-life balance have all raised their concerns with us. We will push for a stronger commitment to a core hours (10-4) approach, especially for those that rely on this. We will push the campus safety concerns for both staff and student regarding late working. We will press on the dangers of long anti-social hours, tantamount to a ‘split shift’ situation or long continuous timetabled blocks without appropriate rest breaks. The working week is both a serious equality and a serious health and safety issue.
Secondly, we will be raising workload. Members are raising serious concerns about both current and future workloads (lost colleagues, SSR pressures, increased admin demands, crunch-times of the calendar). There are also major reorganisations in the pipeline in HASS and SAGE (Computing and MSP). Learning Edge Curriculum requiring the revalidation of every single degree programme will generate considerable work and when the PVC for Education was asked about the Health and Safety implications of the LEC she declared that it was covered in the existing generic stress risk assessment of the university. Moreover, the reform to the academic calendar next year with a post-Christmas orphan teaching week (compressing marking turnaround) and the loss of a week at in the spring break. The university needs to take workload, work-related stress more seriously than after-the-fact mitigations and a performative risk assessment regime. We have been asking for better data on sickness absence and a survey on workload and health. We will press these concerns at the JNC.
Iran: Speaking Out against War and Repression
Members may remember that we organised a vigil in solidarity with the people of Iran facing repression from the regime organised by Iranian members of the branch. Our vice-chair Marika spoke on behalf of the branch at Monday’s Stop the War rally against the bombing of Iran. The branch has passed a motion for Congress in solidarity with popular movements and trade unions in Iran and against Trump’s warmongering.
International Women’s Day
Finally, happy International Women’s Day. (For Sunday!) This time last year we had a fantastic celebration of International Women’s Day on our picket lines keeping strong the spirit of rebellious and unruly women who make history.
There is a Women against the Far Right public meeting tomorrow in Newcastle organised by Stand Up to Racism North East. The unfortunately details are yet to be finalised but will be posted on their Facebook page.
Rally in support of Northumbria University UCU, Wednesday 25 March.
Northumbria colleagues have invited us to support their rally. We would want the biggest numbers we can muster given the marvellous solidarity that our neighbours showed us last year (plus volunteers to carry our branch banner). Assemble at the Civic Centre, 12.30; march to Monument, 12.45; rally at 1pm.
Branch meeting on Thursday 26 March, 2pm.
Agenda:
- Speakers from striking branches London Met, Sheffield Hallam (TBC).
- Report back on reorganisations. (We have a meeting with the HAS PVC on Wednesday afternoon)
- Report back and Q&A on negotiations with management (including workload and timetabling) see report below.
- Motions and discussion of annual UCU Congress (motions to follow)
Together Alliance, London Demonstration, Sat 28 March
With the growing threat of the far right, the TUC is backing the broadest effort to challenge the racism, bigotry and intolerance that many colleagues, neighbours and students are increasingly facing. For tickets to the London demonstration. Newcastle coach to March Together Against the Far Right Tickets, Saturday, Mar 28 from 6 am to 11 pm | Eventbrite
Any volunteers to take our branch banner down? Please get in touch. The branch has donated to the transport so members should be able to pay what they feel they can.
Migrant Members
The Branch’s Migrant Members met last Wednesday with a guide to the Global Talent Visa application process with its enhanced rights in comparison to the Skilled Worker Visa. Please get in touch with UCU Office if you have queries about your rights as a migrant member employee.
Joint Negotiating Committee (UCU-management consultations) report back from Wednesday.
We pressed for the university to undertake a workload survey. Ascertaining levels of overwork and stress would allow the employer to mitigate this health hazard. We have asked that the survey include: 1) comparability with the Workload and Wellbeing Survey of 2023 (q5), 2) design to allow correlations between stress and measures of heavy workload (Staff-Student Ratios and PS equivalents), 3) the Health and Safety Executive’s Management Standards questionnaire and 4) questions regarding the symptoms of stress.
We also asked for updates from SAGE on workload as the PVC had not attended the previous meetings on workload. We also repeated our position that FMS ought to revise its retrospective model of workload out of step with Workload Policy and practice elsewhere in the university to undertake prospective workload planning.
We explained work-related stress was high and that the generic university-wide risk assessment without active preventative mitigations was an inadequate way of dealing with this. We pointed to the World Health Organisation’s guidance on mental health in the workplace. WHO lists causes of poor workplace mental health (job insecurity, under-/over-promotion, loss of job control, long hours, change, bullying and harassment). We observed that many of these were significant at Newcastle University. Management’s response was to ask if the WHO report was specific to Higher Education.
We emphasized—as both a stressor and additional work—the current intensification of change: the new Learning Edge Curriculum, revised REF planning and delivery, reorganisations (HR denied any reorganisations were underway, which will be news to HASS and MSP-COMP members).
We also raised the timetabling and flexible working policy following recent communications to academic staff. HR defended a situation in which staff could be timetabled at 9am, then to 6.30pm and then again at 9am the following morning. We challenged the apparent shift in approach from the perspectives of uninterrupted continuous hours without a break, ‘split shifts’, carers, commuters, colleagues with disabilities, reasonable adjustments and loss of control over the job. We were surprised that HR did not recognise ‘core hours’ as a principle. We pressed on the relationship between this apparently increasingly inflexibility and the Athena Swan submissions.
The management insisted that the flexible working form was precisely to ensure that those who need flexible working would receive it. We asked for the deadline for the flexible working request to be extended. HR undertook that a communication would clarify these matters that have caused a considerable concern amongst our members.