The forced change of contract dispute at University of Liverpool has been discussed on BBC Radio Merseyside news 11:00am, 12:00 midday and 13:00pm 22/07/13, the UCU regional officer Martyn Moss gave a statement to the effect that the ballot for industrial action at UOL UCU commenced on 22/07.

University of Liverpool staff who face the sack unless they accept revised terms and conditions could vote to strike within days.

In June, 2,803 workers, whose jobs include librarians, computer technicians, clerical posts and groundsmen were put in the firing line due to the university’s controversial move to bring “equity across the institution” by standardising employees’ terms and conditions.

On Monday, University and College Union (UCU) chiefs are expected to formally ask staff whether they want to strike over the proposed changes amid a 4,000-signature petition against the shake-up and fears the university’s stance could set a dangerous precedent.

Unions fear the non-teaching staff’s revised terms would force them to work over 35 hours a week, at weekends and evenings and Bank Holidays without lieu days or overtime.

Read the full article at: http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/news/liverpool-news/university-liverpool-staff-could-vote-5134981

18 July 2013

Sir Howard Newby says that the University and College Union has “misrepresented” the current dispute at the University of Liverpool (“Standard terms, equal conditions”, Letters, 11 July). Regrettably, we must insist that it is Newby’s letter that is misleading.

Liverpool is imposing a new contractual requirement for bank holiday working for the majority of professional, managerial, specialist and senior administrative (PMSA) staff, with only single-time time off in lieu (Toil) when support staff will be compensated at triple time. It has also refused a contractual right to hour-for-hour Toil for staff working outside their contracted hours. A further matter of concern emerged only after the section 188 consultations had begun, when it became clear that the university intended to allow local managers to vary normal working hours from the 9am-5pm set out in the new contract of employment without staff consent.

Newby says that Liverpool is negotiating with the trade unions. Under the local recognition agreement between it and the UCU, Unite and Unison, all changes to terms and conditions must be negotiated rather than merely consulted upon. The matter of hours clearly comes under the category of “terms and conditions”, and formal negotiations were indeed under way. However, on 7 June university negotiators announced that they would invoke the section 188 procedures from the Trade Union and Labour Relations (Consolidation) Act (1992), which are expressly designed for redundancy or dismissal situations. This means that Liverpool is proposing to issue dismissal notices to 2,803 staff (54 per cent of its workforce) to achieve its ends. Negotiations do not involve the threat to dismiss staff who do not sign a new contract put in front of them. Moreover, far from being “positive and constructive”, this approach has led to the first formal dispute between Liverpool and an academic union or association in the university’s long and distinguished history.

Newby also says that Liverpool will not be making any staff redundant as a result of the new contracts. So why has the university opened a voluntary disengagement scheme, normally designed for redundancy situations? It excludes PMSA staff, so the university may believe this means that ending their contracts is somehow different. However, even if there are no redundancies, this does not mean there will be no dismissals. In response to a question at an all-staff meeting on the day his letter was published, Newby confirmed that any member of staff who rejects the new contract will be dismissed.

We urge the vice-chancellor to apply the standards of excellence he champions for research and teaching to the approaches the university takes to its human resources management and industrial relations.

Roger Brooks
President, University of Liverpool branch
University and College Union

You can read the letter online at http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/comment/letters/disputed-territory/2005810.article

Comment on: Professorial position: Liverpool, think again

Roger Brooks’s comment | 04 Jul 2013 11:05am

On behalf of the University of Liverpool UCU branch I would like to thank the senior academic colleagues from across the HE sector who have given us their support. We have been amazed at the extent of the solidarity shown, as well as by the huge number of private messages of support that have come in to our office.

The use of legislation usually reserved for redundancy consultation to dismiss and re-engage staff to achieve changes to working hours and to re-structure the working week must not be allowed to become standard practice in British universities. Our UCU branch is prepared to fully negotiate with a view to reaching a suitable agreement on the standardisation of PMSA contracts. Indeed the UCU was actually in negotiations on these issues until University declared that they would instead simply issue the legal notice of the intention to consult the trade unions over the use dismissal notices to achieve their ends.

We are also moved that so many senior academics have shown solidarity with their ‘non-academic’ colleagues. In reality of course we all depend on one another in working towards excellence in our work. In supporting this statement these signatories have shown that this is something that they understand and value.

With great appreciation and respect,

Dr Roger Brooks,
President, University of Liverpool UCU

You can read the letter online at http://www.timeshighereducation.co.uk/comment/letters/professorial-position-liverpool-think-again/2005370.article

Six hundred professors have signed a letter condemning “disreputable” plans by the University of Liverpool to force its non-academic staff to accept new terms and conditions.

In the letter published in this week’s Times Higher Education, the professors, from universities across the UK and further afield, call on Liverpool to return to negotiations with trade unions over its plans to change the contracts of about 2,800 non-academic staff.

View the full article on the Times Higher Education web site or view via University of Liverpool online subscription (requires UoL login).

The Times Higher Education today published a letter signed by around 600 University professors calling for the University of Liverpool to “step back” from its descision to invoke the use of dismissal notices to change the contracts of 2803 non-academic staff:

Professorial position: Liverpool, think again

We recently heard that the University of Liverpool intends to issue dismissal notices to 2,803 “non-academic” staff – 54 per cent of the institution’s workforce (“Mersey motion rejects revised contract terms”, News, 20 June). After breaking off negotiations with the recognised trade unions, Liverpool’s management is attempting to force these workers on to inferior contracts, expecting them to work extra hours in the evenings, weekends and on bank holidays without appropriate compensation. Management action of this type on such a scale is unprecedented in the UK academy.

The fair treatment of all staff is vital to any university. Clerical, technical, manual, administrative, library, computing and other specialist staff are the people who provide the high-quality teaching and research environments that make scholarly work possible. Academics could not do their jobs without them.

We are shocked that Liverpool, with its proud reputation for international excellence in a range of disciplines as well as its tradition of civic and regional service, is resorting to such disreputable industrial relations practices. The management’s approach can only be disastrous for its relationship with staff.

We call upon Liverpool’s management and council to step back from the course of action upon which they have embarked and re-enter meaningful negotiations with the trade unions to reach a mutual and amicable agreement on the matters at hand.

Sir Iain Chalmers, professor, University of Liverpool; Steven Rose, emeritus professor, The Open University; Alan Sokal, professor, University College London; Diarmaid MacCulloch, professor, University of Oxford; and 600 other professors at UK universities

Readers’ comments (1)

Roger Brooks | 04 Jul 2013 11:05am

On behalf of the University of Liverpool UCU branch I would like to thank the senior academic colleagues from across the HE sector who have given us their support. We have been amazed at the extent of the solidarity shown, as well as by the huge number of private messages of support that have come in to our office.

The use of legislation usually reserved for redundancy consultation to dismiss and re-engage staff to achieve changes to working hours and to re-structure the working week must not be allowed to become standard practice in British universities. Our UCU branch is prepared to fully negotiate with a view to reaching a suitable agreement on the standardisation of PMSA contracts. Indeed the UCU was actually in negotiations on these issues until University declared that they would instead simply issue the legal notice of the intention to consult the trade unions over the use dismissal notices to achieve their ends.

We are also moved that so many senior academics have shown solidarity with their ‘non-academic’ colleagues. In reality of course we all depend on one another in working towards excellence in our work. In supporting this statement these signatories have shown that this is something that they understand and value.

With great appreciation and respect,

Dr Roger Brooks,
President, University of Liverpool UCU

View the full article on the Times Higher Education web site or view via University of Liverpool online subscription (requires UoL login).

One of the University of Liverpool’s largest faculties has voted against plans it says will force non-academic staff to accept new terms and conditions.

At a meeting of about 150 members of the Faculty of Health and Life Sciences’ forum, academics passed a motion condemning Liverpool’s decision to start a 45-day redundancy consultation period for about 2,800 workers.

Please see the full article on the Times Higher Education Web site.

Please see the following recent article published in the Liverpool Echo newspaper http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/incoming/university-liverpool-staff-told-accept-4291057