Ordinary Members’ Meeting 19 Feb 2025

The next Ordinary Member’s Meeting will be held online via Zoom between 1.00 and 2.00pm on 19 February 2025.

This is one of the regular open meetings we have in between our AGMs each year. Members can bring motions for discussion at the meeting and/or agenda items draw attention to any issues which the committee or other members may not be aware of. We are hoping that we might have some more information about the ‘cost savings’ being planned by the University.

Motions can be to define branch policy on an issue or suggestions for motions to go forward to the UCU national congress in May. Motions should be up to 150 words and the deadline is Tuesday 11 February to allow for circulation and amendments.

At the meeting we will also be electing our delegates to the national conference. The conference will be held in Liverpool between Saturday 24 and Monday 26 May 2025. Members can self-nominate to stand as a delegate. In the event of having more than 2 nominations we will ask for candidate statements and hold a vote.

If you have an agenda item, or a motion, or wish to put yourself forward as a delegate please contact Juergen Munz, the Branch Secretary.

The full agenda, meeting link, and motions will follow by email. We hope to see as many of you at the meeting as possible. If you would find BSL interpretation helpful please contact Marion Fletcher in advance to arrange this.

If you have questions please feel free to get in touch. If you require casework or personal representation further information can be found at https://heriotwatt.web.ucu.org.uk/casework/

 

 

Online USS pensions session with Dooley Harte

We are delighted to be hosting an online USS pensions session with Dooley Harte from UCU at 1.15 on Wednesday 4 December 2024.

The session will cover such topics as:

  • Why join USS?
  • Recent changes to your USS benefits including the one-off uplift
  • Early and late retirement factors and retirement age
  • Flexible retirement
  • Ethical investment and divestment

You will be able to ask questions in the meeting or you can submit questions to Sarah Joss in advance by email. Note: If you are doing this please put “Pensions Questions” in the subject line.

There are some 15 minute individual pensions surgery appointments available with Dooley from 3.30 onwards but please be advised that Dooley won’t be able to give personalised financial advice. For personal advice you should contact your own Financial Adviser or use the UCU service offered by Quilter Financial Advisers. To arrange an appointment please contact Sarah Joss.

Branch members should have received the Zoom link by email. If you can’t find it, or if you are a non-member who wishes to attend or is considering joining please contact your local rep, a committee member, or Sarah Joss. There is a list on the branch committee web page.

BSL can be arranged if required. Please contact Marion Fletcher if this would be helpful.

United against Scholasticide

Join university workers and students across the world in responding to the call from Palestine for a week of action in solidarity with Gaza’s Universities from 23 to 30 November.

You can offer messages of support to our colleagues in Palestine by emailing gucworkers4pal@gmail.com or tagging @UCW4Pal and @Right2Edu on X.

National workplace and student day of action

As part of the nation workplace day of action on Thursday 28 November the HWUCU Palestine Solidarity Working Group will be running a stall in the Student Union building from 11:30 to 2:30. Please do come along and help out if you can – more volunteers are always welcome. We will be sharing information, fundraising for Scotaid, and encouraging students to join the newly founded Voice for Palestine society. If you are interested in joining the society please contact Marion Winters.

Settler colonialism and Palestine – where we are and how we got here

At 4.00pm on Wednesday 27 November there will be a an online talk by Dr Ghada Karmi from University of Reading. If you wish to attend and haven’t received a Zoom link please contact Marion Winters at HWUCU branch.

Ghada Karmi was born in Jerusalem and was forced to leave her home with her family as a result of Israel’s creation in 1948. The family moved to England in 1949, where she grew up and was educated. She practised as a doctor for many years working as a specialist in the health of migrants and refugees. She held a number of research appointments on Middle Eastern politics and culture at the School of Oriental and African Studies, and in the Universities of Durham, Exeter and Leeds. From 1999 to 2001 she was an Associate Fellow of the Royal Institute of International Affairs, where she led a major project on Israel-Palestinian reconciliation. In 2009, she became a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts.

Redundancies and reshaping the School of Social Sciences at Heriot-Watt University

Academic staff in the School of Social Sciences (SoSS) will have received an email about proposed changes in the School of Social Sciences.

In this post we will summarise these proposals and share our concerns about what we anticipate to be a difficult and unsettling time.

What is happening?

On Monday 5 August 2024 all academic staff in SoSS received an email from the Executive Dean (ED) which outlined the University’s plan for ‘reshaping’ the school. The plan includes a voluntary redundancy (VR) scheme together with a range of alternative options ranging from temporary 2-year secondments to Dubai, where there are ongoing recruitment issues, to reducing working hours and unpaid career breaks. All designed to reduce local staff costs.

What are our concerns?

This is a major exercise and while cuts on this scale will be particularly damaging to a school which is still recovering from job losses in 2020 the effects are likely to be felt in other parts of the university too.

We have not been given answers as to why a key academic unit has been singled out again and whether the situation will escalate to compulsory redundancies if not resolved satisfactorily, and whether the current scheme will be escalated to other parts of the university.

Our local UCU representatives met with HR, the ED, and the Deputy ED of SoSS on 29 July for an ‘early consultation meeting’. The email which staff in SoSS subsequently received does not reflect the discussion held or the points of concern we raised. We are very disappointed that the University has pressed ahead with these plans without engaging in meaningful collective consultation, and despite the joint statement on the Scottish Fair Work Agenda which was signed by Heriot-Watt University and the three recognised unions: UCU, Unison, and Unite.

We have informed management their proposed plan is unwise and risks considerable harm to colleagues and the student experience. A critical concern is that the proposals have not been the subject of an Equality Impact Assessment. In 2020 it was women  close to retirement who bore the weight disproportionately. In addition the obvious equalities impacts of secondments to Dubai have not been considered.

Our position

We have made our position clear to the University.

  • We will support any eligible1 members who wish to know more about the voluntary redundancy (VR) scheme or any of the alternatives which have been suggested to ensure that they secure the best possible terms.
  • We will not tolerate any attempts to persuade, pressure, or coerce. No-one should consider taking VR or changing their contracted hours or campus location unless they want to and without being fully informed of all their options and reaching a conclusion of their own choosing.
  • The university should be meeting regularly with staff and the unions to consult meaningfully on the proposed changes.

1. The proposed VR scheme does not include Professional Services staff, G6, GTAs, or academic staff who are funded externally.

What happens next?

We will be writing to management to reiterate our concerns and to request further consultation meetings.

If you are invited to a meeting, or wish to arrange a meeting, with your line manager we strongly recommend that you be accompanied by a branch rep to ensure that policy and procedures are being followed correctly in relation to your individual circumstances. You have a statutory right to be accompanied by a union rep in any meeting at which redundancy is discussed. If a meeting not initially about redundancy turns to this subject you have the right to halt the meeting and ask for it to be reconvened with a rep present. For meetings about options other than redundancy there is no statutory right to be accompanied but it is recognised as ‘good practice’ to allow staff to be accompanied. Please contact the branch if need the support of a rep.

We will be organising an online SoSS members meeting shortly. Please check your inbox for details and try to attend if at all possible.

Meetings are usually for members but given the significance of the proposed changes non-members will be most welcome too. If you would like an invite please speak to a school rep, anyone who you know is a member, or contact the branch office at ucu@hw.ac.uk.

Update: The online SoSS members meeting will be on Friday 9 August at 1pm. Members have been sent an email with a Zoom link together with the Meeting ID and Passcode. Please attend only if you are in SoSS or a branch committee member.

Join UCU at https://www.ucu.org.uk/join

Emergency Members’ meeting to discuss pay negotiations July 2024

Pay negotiators from UCU and the other unions in the higher education sector have been meeting with Universities and Colleges Employers’ Association (UCEA) over the past few weeks to try and reach agreement on the 2024-25 claim on pay and conditions.

The heads of the claim can be viewed at HE Negotiations 2024-25 and negotiators need to know what members think about the latest proposals ahead of a branch delegate meeting (BDM) at extreme short notice on Tuesday 2 July.

Confirmation of UCEA’s pay ‘offer’ and the questions to be considered by branches have been circulated to members by email.

A link to the branch Zoom meeting on Tuesday 2 July at 12.45 at which they will be discussed has been also been circulated.

Please review the negotiators’ report and the questions and join the meeting to vote on the questions so that our branch delegates can bring your views to the BDM later in the day. Proxy voting is not allowed but if you would like your views to be considered please contact the branch by email with a short note which can be read out at the meeting, or contact a committee member or your school or service rep and let them know your views.

 

Edinburgh, Lothians and Borders May Day Celebration 2024

We will be assembling at the top end of Johnston Terrace from 11.30AM for march off at 12:00. Our route is down the Royal Mile and St Mary’s Street then up to the Pleasance Theatre for a rally. Please make your way upstairs into the theatre on arrival.

Speakers

  • Tasneem Ali, Muslim Women’s Society
  • Amanda Fyfe,  Living Rent
  • Mike Cowley, EIS FELA
  • Mick Hogg, Ex-Miner

The event will be compered by Susan Morrison and there will be music from Penny Stone, Elsie MacDonald and the Stockbridge Pipe Band. Stalls in the Cabaret Bar.

Solidarity with Palestine

The Edinburgh, Lothians and Borders May Day Committee extends its unwavering solidarity with the people of Palestine. We share the deep concerns of many people around the world over the ongoing conflict and the worsening impact it is having on civilians in Gaza.

In order for peace and justice to prevail, we urgently call for an immediate ceasefire to prevent further suffering and create a path towards a just and lasting resolution to this decades long conflict. Together, we hope for a future where all people in the region can live in peace, security, and dignity.

Posted on behalf of Edinburgh TUC and the Edinburgh and Lothians May Day organising committee.

The Great Edinburgh May Day Cabaret 2024

The Great Edinburgh May Day Cabaret is a celebration of International Worker’s Day. It is being held in The Stand comedy Club on Thursday 2 may 2024. Doors open at 7.30PM and the show starts at 8.30PM. Ticket £12.50 online.

Performers include:

Hosted by the second best poet out of Ayrshire, Jim Monaghan. Supported by Edinburgh, Lothians and Borders May Day Committee, ASLEF, The STUC, Scottish Campaign For Nuclear Disarmament and Fair Pley.

 

International Workers’ Memorial Day 2024

Safe work is a right not a privilege but more people are killed at work than in wars every year.

Every year on 28 April we come together to remember everyone who has been killed, disabled, injured or made unwell by their work. International Workers’ Memorial Day (IWMD) is officially recognised by UK government and in 19 other countries.

In Edinburgh we will be meeting at the Memorial Tree in West Princes Street Gardens at 12.30 on Sunday 28 April 2024. Nearest entrance is west side of the Mound and down the lowest path.

Keynote Speakers:

  • Scott MacRory, FBU.
  • Joanna Cherry MP

After there will be the Laying of Wreaths and Songs from Protest in Harmony.

This commemorative event is organised by Edinburgh Trade Union Council and Scottish Hazards. City of Edinburgh Council and the Scottish Government buildings will lower their flags

Working in a bad climate

The theme for 2024 is the impact of climate change on occupational health and safety. Stand with us to remember the early victims of climate change-caused heat stress, UV radiation, air pollution, industrial accidents, extreme weather events, vector-borne diseases, and chemical exposure. Commit to fight for a world that’s more, not less, safe to live and work in.

USS Pension Justice: We earned it.

After 69 days total of industrial action following the needless pension cuts which were forced through by our employers two years ago members of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) will see their benefits restored as of Monday 1 April 2024.

The key points of the settlement are that

  • the USS accrual rate be restored from 1/85 back to 1/75
  • the defined benefit threshold will lift from £41k back to over £70k
  • the hard inflation cap of 2.5% has been removed
  • £900m has been set aside for a one-off payment to make good losses which members have already suffered