Newcastle University UCU Branch Newsletter – September 2026
UCU National Executive Postal Ballot ‘By-Elections’
Vote for our branch secretary Loes Veldpaus https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/14550/UCU-NEC-casual-vacancies-2026 and https://www.instagram.com/reel/Dc045f0IPo2/?utm_source=ig_web_copy_link&igsi=MzRlODBiNWFlZA==
The last safe posting date is very soon!
Timetables and Flexible Working
Several members have asked about timetables and their family, caring or other responsibilities.
All employees in the UK have a right to request flexible working.
Flexible working request form via https://newcastle.sharepoint.com/docs/HR%20Policies/Forms/Policies.aspx or directly here
A University Survey on Workload? Report back from Wednesday’s Meeting
One aspect of our 2024-25 dispute concerned workload. The Head of Organisation Development and the Head of People Services presented branch negotiators with a draft survey on Wednesday that will be rolled out soon and report in November.
The survey itself begins with an engagement element for benchmarking with other Russell Group universities, creating a key performance indicator to drive policy from premises such as ‘I care about the future of Newcastle University’.
Next is a change management section. Questions about autonomy in our professional or academic field of expertise or whether consultation over change results in meaningful improvement in our working lives are missing.
A single item pertains to workload: ‘I feel my workload is manageable’, replacing the much more objective survey item from the Workload and Wellbeing Survey (December 2023): ‘I can meet the requirements of my job without regularly working excessive hours’.
Despite a section on mental health and wellbeing, the items avoid directly asking about the work-related stress, its symptoms and stress-related illnesses that the university ought to be monitoring, actively preventing and mitigating. Overall, survey items suggested personal rather than institutional responsibility, or that change was inevitable, necessary and virtuous.
Finally, there is a section on equality. We objected to its clumsiness and ambiguity. However, this was to generate data for Athena Swann and Race Equality Charter surveys.
We believe senior management have missed another opportunity to take work-related stress more seriously after their failure to incorporate more rigorous monitoring into their revised sickness absence policy. We believe that major changes to working practices such as the LEC, the calendar change and restructures should be risk assessed for impact on workload and wellbeing.
We were told that the new survey platform being used could be used for future survey, including potentially workload. Management have at least now promised to provide SSRs across the university after years of asking so that we can correlate against sickness absence data.
We will continue to press your grievances over workload at the upcoming University Health and Safety Committee with our new health and safety lead and the Workload Joint Negotiating Committee with the three Faculty PVCs next month. If colleagues could provide concise concrete examples of how workloading process are not working for those negotiations that would help your negotiators.
Are you suffering from stress?
The university has a self-assessment tool based on HSE guidance. Stress risk assessments: https://newcastle.sharepoint.com/hub/orghas they are here under management standards and then ‘stress’.
Crisis in Higher Education
Dundee University UCU who are taking strike action against redundancies are hosting a hybrid conference on the Crisis in Higher Education tomorrow ….
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/higher-education-under-threat-tickets-1999484587225
Please sign the petition against redundancies at Birmingham University.
Resist the Far Right
There is a counter-protest on Saturday. There is another wave of far right mobilisations colleagues may have seen in the news. They are attempting to march in Newcastle on Saturday.
The First Professional Service Transformation consultation
The university’s Workforce Re-sizing project resulted in significant job loss, overwork, unfilled vacancies, a generalised sense of insecurity and poor morale not least for Professional Service staff. The business case for this project indicated that ‘PS Transformation’ would be part of this work. Branch negotiators have asked about this on several occasions. Eventually the PS Transformation is being consulted with the unions with a first meeting on Monday 5 October.
Ideally, we would like some PS members to step forward to be part of a working group to develop our negotiating position and be part of the negotiating team. It would be good if there was representation across the diversity of professional service from librarians, IT, Kings Gate and the faculties. Please email ucu.office@ncl.ac.uk if you would be willing to join the working group.
The wider context is one that the branch committee is very aware. The employers organisations such as UUK are advocating a transformation of the sector including institutional mergers (‘collaboration’), shared services (wanting VAT to be exempted for private providers), and cost reduction (particularly in relation to its favourite metric staff-cost-to-income ratio). At other universities, PS have been in the firing line with attacks on pensions, being pushed into subsidiary companies, etc. All this means strong trade union representation amongst PS colleagues in UCU and cooperation with other campus unions organising other grades of PS staff is crucial.
The UNISON-UCU campaign on workload for PS Staff
UCU works very closely with the reps in the other campus UNISON and UNITE. One area is sickness absence (with significant objections to the new policy) and work-related stress. After pressing management to improve its monitoring of stress, the inadequacy of their response has led UNISON to survey employees on stress. They have invited us to support the survey which we do wholeheartedly. It is open to all employees. Please fill it in and encourage your colleagues to do so (you do not have to be a union member to fill it in). It can be found here.
UNISON Newcastle University Workload and Stress survey – Fill in form
HASS Reorganisation and PS Staff
There have been a number of reorganisations over the last two years involving PS colleague. These are a disruptive and stressful experience, and sometimes your job and grade is on the line so. The reorganisation of HASS is likely to have a very significant impact on PS staff especially those in school structures. We have pressed this question with the Faculty PVC. Again getting PS UCU member reps and participation in the consultation will be crucial to getting the best outcome for PS colleagues. If you want to become a rep or involved in this process the two negotiators are Matt Perry and Kate Chedgzoy. Please get in touch with them. The current state of play is that an initial document has gone through Senate and will be tabled at Council in October.
UCU is a union for Professional Service colleagues. We organise those on grade F and above.
PS colleagues organise within and across branches.
UCU Academic-related Professional Services Staff
Let us know if you want us to organise a meeting in your section.