We are hoping that the results of the local ballot for industrial action will be finalised by Monday afternoon. The employer will then be informed, as the law requires, before members are notified. For a ballot to be valid at least 50% of eligible members must vote and the majority who vote must vote in favour of industrial action.

We will be holding an online branch members’ meeting on Tuesday 17 February at 12:00pm to discuss the results of the ballot and determine our next steps.

Members should have received a Zoom meeting invite by email. If you haven’t received yours please let us know. If BSL interpreting is required please contact the on-campus BSL interpreting service to arrange this via marion.fletcher@hw.ac.uk.

Why are we in dispute?

At our last members’ meeting there was overwhelming support to move to dispute if  Heriot-Watt would not commit to ruling out the use of compulsory redundancies and significant changes to research time.

Unfortunately, we were unable to secure these commitments during the consultations for Rightsizing and the proposed changes to, or closure of, Scholar.

Rightsizing

We have learned that the Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies (LINCS) finds itself under the threat of profound cuts and closures and we have launched a petition to save LINCS which has already attracted a huge number of signatures. If you haven’t already, please sign the petition and help support our campaign to stop these extremely damaging proposals under which a third of the staff could face redundancy.

Please also consider writing to MSPs/MPs or any other influential parties that may be able to support this campaign

Scholar

You can also help by showing your support for Scholar and the vital service that it provides via the form at https://sites.google.com/view/scholar-for-scotland/support-scholar.

Please spread the message and help amplify. As well as MSPs and MPs this should be of significant interest to anyone invested in supporting education in Scotland. This includes local councillors, teachers and pupils (past and present), and Heriot-Watt students who have used Scholar services like that Maths Gym.

Join UCU today

To our many new members – welcome!

Please do encourage your colleagues to join the union at https://www.ucu.org.uk/join