As part of its campaigning on job insecurity and casualised work, the TUC has launched an on-line survey and is particularly interested in responses from workers on temporary contracts, agency workers and those on zero hours contracts. If you have such a job please fill in this survey. If you know someone who has please tell them about this survey. The survey closes on June 20th. Thank you.

Dear all

HWUCU invites members to attend the 2014 AGM.  The AGM will take place Wednesday 28 May 2014 at 3.15pm in the Chaplaincy and refreshments will be provided.  More information and an agenda will follow.

Members should note that there is currently a vacancy on the committee for the position of President and we are seeking nominations. If you are interested in this role or in becoming involved in the committee please get in touch.

Kind regards

Catherine

Catherine Ure
http://heriotwatt.web.ucu.org.uk/

UCU is calling on all members in higher education to begin working to contract and working to rule. This means that we’re asking you to abide strictly by the terms of your contract, so the first thing to do is to dig out your contract of employment and refer to that when reading this advice. In brief, we are asking members to:

• work no more than their contracted hours where those hours are expressly stated, or where they are stipulated in a workload agreement and in any event not to exceed the maximum number of hours per week stipulated in the Working Time Regulations (48 hours a week)
• perform no additional voluntary duties, such as out of hours cover, or covering for colleagues (unless such cover is contractually required)
• set and mark no work beyond that work which they are contractually obliged to set and/or mark
• attend no meetings where such attendance is voluntary on the part of the members
• undertake no duties that breach health and safety policies or other significant employer’s policies

Some of it sounds simple and basic but we know from experience that Universities run on significant amounts of unpaid labour and goodwill. This is what we are withdrawing in this action.

In support of the above we are also asking you to add the following text to your email signature:

‘PLEASE NOTE: There may be a delay in dealing with your email as I am participating in UCU industrial action by ‘working to contract’ in support of the union’s campaign for fair pay in higher education.’ Further information can be found at http://www.ucu.org.uk.”

Further guidance on working to contract, including a list of FAQs, is available at:

http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=6804

Thank you for your support.

HWUCU Committee

We have been advised that for UCU members who took strike action on October 31st:

• Amount of pay deducted will be 1/260^th.
• Pensions contributions will not be deducted.
• All deductions will be donated to the student hardship fund.

Thanks again for your support.

UCU Committee

You should by now have received your ballot paper. If you have not received your ballot paper by Monday 30 September, please complete the form at: http://www.ucu.org.uk/nohepayballot

UCU will be tweeting throughout the ballot at https://twitter.com/ucu

You are warmly invited to attend a UCU members reception, tea, coffee and cakes will be provided and it will be a chance to take a breath and catch up with colleagues.

The recent consultative ballot on pay indicated a clear majority for rejecting the pay offer of 1% and a majority for both action short of a strike and strike action.  The upshot of this is a statutory ballot where you will be asked to cast your vote again to either accept or reject the pay offer and the industrial action you would be willing to take.  Mary Senior (Scottish Official) will attend the reception and discuss the background to the pay negotiations, what your vote will mean and answer any questions you might have.

The ‘full and final’ offer on pay is for an increase across all pay points of 1%. Set against current RPI of 3.1%, the employers are offering real-terms pay cut for the fourth year in succession and are, once again, refusing to negotiate at a national level on a range of issues in respect of UCU equality policy.

There will also be an update on the proposed changes to academic titles.

Details of the reception are below.  For catering purposes please email  (c.m.ure@hw.ac.uk) if you would like to attend.

A whole host of changes to employment law have been introduced, or are about to be brought into effect on 29 July 2013. UCU has produced a FAQ to identify them and provide you with a summary of their likely impact:

What do the new changes in employment law mean for me?

In higher education, following the failure of the employers to improve on their final offer, all five trade unions rejected this offer and are now consulting their members on the next steps. Members in higher education are reminded to vote in the consultative e-ballot that opened on Thursday. If you haven’t voted already, look for an email in your inbox from Michael MacNeil, National Head of Higher Education and vote online using the link in that email.