Apologies that the LSHTM UCU branch website has been out of action recently.
Now that it is working again, we will endeavour to get it up to date! But in the meantime please email ucu@lshtm.ac.uk if you want to get in touch with your local UCU representatives.
Information about UCU nationally is available at www.ucu.org.uk
To join UCU please visit https://www.ucu.org.uk/join
Thanks
The LSHTM UCU committee
The AGM will be held in room LG6, Keppel Street at 12:30pm on Tuesday 25 October 2016.
Please come along and bring any prospective members.
Lunch will be provided – it would be helpful if you could let us know if you are coming so we don’t over (or under!) cater.
Also let us know if you have any items for the agenda.
Looking forward to seeing you on 25th.
Lorna Gibson
LSHTM UCU Branch Secretary
This event has been rescheduled:
Date: Tuesday 19 April 2016
Time: 12:00 noon
Venue: Manson Lecture Theatre, LSHTM, Keppel Street, London, WC1E 7HT, UK
Type of event: Seminar
LSHTM UCU is pleased to announce that
Catherine West, MP for Hornsey and Wood Green and Shadow Minister (Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs) , will be giving a talk.
Admission: Open to LSHTM staff and Students
Contact: Dan Arthur
Email: dan.arthur@lshtm.ac.uk
London School of
Hygiene & Tropical Medicine
USS Dispute – What should YOU (not) be doing??
I would strongly advise you too look at the FAQ as this covers all the questions I’ve received so far – http://defenduss.web.ucu.org.uk/assessment-boycott-faqs/ but some highlights:
**Is external examining included in the action?
No. We have balloted members in relation to their principal employment. External examining involves a contract with a separate employer and was not covered by the ballot. Fact sheet for external examiners – http://defenduss.web.ucu.org.uk/files/2011/09/ucu_ussaction_externalexaminers_briefing.pdf
**What exactly does the boycott include?
The boycott is intended to be comprehensive and to include all formal student assessment, including the formal setting of assessed work. By ‘formal’ we mean any assessment, whether expressed numerically or in any other form, which contributes to the award or classification of any degree, certificate, diploma or any other academic or professional qualification.
It applies to all levels, sub-degree, undergraduate or postgraduate, and to all forms of higher education and professional training, full-time, part-time or distance learning.
As well as final awards at the end of courses, the boycott also covers assessment that contributes to decisions about the suitability of students to continue with their studies (eg at the end of the first year of a degree course) or to undertake particular options or modules (eg where they have prerequisites).
The assessment boycott is not restricted to final examinations, but includes any form of in-course continuous assessment. It will include traditional essay setting and marking, but also setting and assessment of any student work falling within the formal assessment defined above, including, for example, the setting or assessment of projects and dissertations, laboratory and other practical work, performance (eg in music or drama) and supervised practice (eg in teacher education).
Examination of dissertations and theses at postgraduate level, as well as vivas, are included in the action.
**Are there any exemptions from the boycott?
The boycott often lead to staff having to take very difficult decisions. That is why this sanction is used only very rarely and also why it is effective. In order to be fair on every member, the union is therefore unable to offer any exemptions from the boycott.
**But what if my job is almost entirely devoted to the administration of examinations?
There are a small number of members, such as examination officers working in university registries, whose jobs are wholly or substantially devoted to examinations work. They are not covered by the action short of a strike and while they should refuse to take on the work of others who are participating in the action they should continue to work normally.
THERE ARE MANY MORE ANSWERS AT http://defenduss.web.ucu.org.uk/assessment-boycott-faqs/ If you have further questions please reply email me!
Dear colleague,
Your pension at stake – please use your vote
The USS ballot opened this morning, and you should receive your ballot paper over the next few working days.
I hope that you will vote yes to take action in defence of our pensions, but however you vote it is vital that the union achieves a significant turnout so please exercise your democratic right to participate.
If you want more information about the employers’ proposals please go to our USS blogsite.
Best wishes
Sally Hunt
UCU general secretary
Annual Equality Conference will take place
13th, 14th and 15
th November 2014
Conference will be held at Manchester Conference Centre
To Register/for mor info – click here
Thursday 13th November 2014
14.30 – 18.30: Women Members’
Conference
Thursday 13th November 2014
19.30: Dinner (All members)
Friday 14th November 2014
9.30 – 13.00 Joint Plenary and Workshop
sessions (All members)
Friday 14th November 2014
14.00 – 17.00 Black Members Conference
Friday 14th November 2014
14.00 – 17.00 Disabled Members Conference
Saturday 15th November 2014
10.00 – 13.00 LGBT Members Conference
Please note that the dinner and the joint plenary and workshop sessions are for all members
A workshop will be organised on Friday afternoon for those who are not attending the black members conference or disabled members conference
but travelling home later on Friday or staying for the LGBT conference
Information about speakers and agenda for the conference will follow but will include
UCU President, Liz Lawrence and General Secretary, Sally Hunt
If you’re looking at our blog because you talked to rep or were handed a leaflet in recent days – it was good to meet you! If you’re considering joining UCU, even better. The easiest way is to do it online at join.ucu.org.uk. Joining take about ten minutes, and your membership begins immediately.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesistate to get in touch – we can be reached by email (ucu@lshtm.ac.uk) or Twitter (@lshtmUCU).
Finally, thanks to all who came to our Diane Abbott event yesterday lunchtime – we hope you enjoyed it.
As you will be aware the legally recognised trade unions for staff in higher education are in dispute with our employers about the ‘cost of living’ pay increment they have offered this year. I’m afraid that I have to tell you that as the UK university employers have failed to bring any new proposals to the negotiation table since our last day of action on 30th November, staff in UK universities will strike again on 3rd December. It is our expectation that many classes will not run and many central services will be closed on 3rd December.
What does this mean?
All levels of university staff from cleaners to professors are involved in this dispute. On Tuesday we will refuse to attend work that day and form protests, or pickets, at the main entrances to the building to discourage others from entering. We regret the disruption this will cause to classes on the day but it is one of very few options open to us. We will lose a day’s pay (which we hope will be donated to the student hardship fund) and many of us will have worked harder to mitigate the impact on students of our action. We are not only trying to maintain a decent standard of living for current staff but make sure the sector continues to attract good, new staff to enable teaching and research.
How can this happen?
Every year university employers representatives and university staff representatives meet in a national forum to agree changes to terms and conditions including pay. As a sector that recognises the right to join a trades union it is these unions that negotiate on behalf of staff. The unions balloted their members on the offer this year and the members (university staff) rejected this offer. This means that we are now in dispute with our employer and gives us the legal right to bring pressure on our employers through means of protest including strike.
Why is this happening?
We have not been in dispute with our employers over pay since 2005. At that time we secured an acceptable pay deal which expired in 2008. Since 2008 in spite of increasing student numbers, increasing workloads, increasing job instability and increasing requirements to do more and more to progress we have effectively suffered a 13% pay cut. This is unacceptable. As university have to publish their financial statements we know that our employers can afford a pay rise in line with the increase in cost of living. University leaders have continued to get real pay rises every year while the people that do the work see the value of their pay decrease.
The unions involved in this dispute are UCU, UNISON and Unite. We all hope that the employers come back to the negotiating table in the coming weeks to settle this dispute before we take more action in the spring term.
Dan Arthur
UCU Branch Secretary
http://ucu.lshtm.ac.uk
Twitter @lshtmUCU