Report from dispute resolution meeting with the Vice-Chancellor and the Head of HR, Thursday 5 December
Newcastle University UCU’s Dispute over Jobs Cuts, Equality and Workloads
Following decisions at well-attended branch general meetings, Newcastle University UCU declared a dispute over the university’s austerity budgets. In addition, we have requested further information regarding the state of university finances. While we have received some information, a considerable amount is outstanding. Crucially, this included the revised budget, interim projections and the submission for the Office for Students to be made this February. We had been told that the latter would be tabled to Council on Monday 9 December. Such information would allow us to know what was coming our way in terms of job cuts and workload hikes.
‘Failure to Agree’
We sent a letter on 25 October over our ‘failure to agree’, I quote the terms:
“Substantively, the terms of our current disagreement are the detriment to staff regarding i) threat of loss of work for various contract types (inter alia PGRs, demonstrators, hourly paid, Fixed Term Contracts non-renewal, as well as not ruling out compulsory redundancies), ii) workload and its impact on health and wellbeing, iii) differential equality impacts and lack of transparency in ‘business-critical’ decision-making.”
A ‘failure to agree’ triggers a dispute resolution meeting which took place on Thursday (5 December).
Thursday’s Meeting: The Sums No Longer Add Up
As your negotiators, we pitched the need to address the crisis in UK HE and that Newcastle University—like it did over the USS in the summer MAB of 2022—could set the agenda nationally. The restoration of USS benefits in January this year followed the model of our local joint statement from that time.
We outlined how, according to the recent Office for Students (OfS) report, there is the very real prospect of one or more universities failing financially. Cuts across Higher Education in the UK will result in by year’s end in 10,000 fewer jobs according to the Times Higher Educational Supplement. The last fortnight has witnessed big jobs losses at Essex, Sussex, Dundee, etc. Matters could get worse next financial year unless the funding model is changed. An opportunity exists now for staff and students to be heard as the government is working out how to reform HE funding which is clearly unsustainable on current lines. The VC could not disagree with our prognosis.
We learned on Thursday that the financial sustainability submission documentation to the OfS had been postponed to a Council meeting on 20 January. We have been refused further financial information until then. That will be a crucial moment for us. Clearly, there are hawks across HE who want to institute a radical restructure of provision, large-scale redundancies and attacks on working conditions. Such a dialogue is occurring nationally but, it seems, also within our own Council and UEB.
What was very clear in Thursday’s meeting was that the management were aware of the strength of opinion of your branch, and went through the list of your demands hoping to dissipate uncertainty about the situation for those on casual contracts. They committed to communicating with staff to allay uncertainty where they could. They also admitted the current measures do have significant equality impacts, and so we hope to see equality assessments and mitigation soon. What has given us leverage is your engagement in meetings and the great response to the open letter, to the survey on the experiences of casualised staff and the consultative ballot on our dispute.
In the meeting we challenged the rationale of the cuts and the strategy of UEB going into this academic year. Their strategy was sector-wide (expanded targets for international students to cross-subsidise other activities including infrastructure investment). What is remarkable is the rapid shift amongst the senior university management. The VC was attending a meeting with the first secretary to the Treasury that afternoon alongside other Russell Group VCs to press for a return of the block grant, namely the funding mechanism for teaching undergraduates prior to the high-tuition fee regime. This is a major turnaround given that the Russel Group VCs had lobbied much of the last decade for even higher tuition fees.
The meeting concluded with the Head of HR telling us that they would be doing the right thing and that they had a record of doing so regarding USS statements, casual contracts and the 37 hour week. We observed that they did those things because of a strong union.
What Next in the Dispute?
At the negotiation on Thursday, we asked for a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies, that was not forthcoming. We had been concerned that compulsory redundancies would be announced after the Council meeting on 9 December. But it appears that any such decision can only be made after the results of the second round of Voluntary Severance (we were told that the numbers and sums were being finalised).
We will seek your views at the branch meeting on Tuesday (10 December, 2pm), with the Council meeting of 20 January in mind. Your pressure has prevented deeper cuts that have been witnessed elsewhere.
We will continue to campaign alongside the Students’ Union and the other campus unions, and continue the process for getting a live ballot, based on your votes in the Consultative Ballot.
Newcastle University UCU’s Consultative Ballot
With a remarkable 44% turnout in only a week, the ballot was as follows: 74.6% in favour of strike, 24.6% against; 86.7% in favour of action short of strike, 12.7% against. This is a strong signal to management that we could win a ballot for industrial action if we needed to. Thank you. Negotiation is so much better with such leverage.
Higher Education Committee, of the UCU National Executive Committee on Thursday
The HEC will be discussing how to respond the recent results of the national consultation regarding this year’s pay round. But national pay takes place in the context of an unprecedented employers’ offensive and jobs massacre. As a member of HEC, I (Matt) am putting a motion to Higher Education Committee on Thursday about facilitating the ballot authorisation because compulsory redundancies require a minimum of 30 or 45 days while it can take considerably longer than that to undertake authorisation and the process of balloting required in law in the UK (Trade Union Act of 2016). Other branches are in the same situation as us. We are trying to get grassroots networking to maximise the pressure from the bottom up.