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General Meeting: Return to Campus? + HE Sector Conference for national Jobs campaign, Tue 15 Sept

11 September 2020

This is a reminder of our forthcoming Extraordinary General Meeting on Tuesday 15 September, 14:00-15:00.

听and we will send you the meeting 鈥榡oin link鈥 on Tuesday.听

We have two items on the agenda:听

  1. Return to Campus?听What should our policy be on Face to Face teaching given the rise in Covid-19 cases? Including Motion 1 for debate (see Appendix).
  2. UCU听Special Higher Education Sector Conference听(SHESC) to build a national campaign to defend jobs as part of our HE 鈥淔our Fights鈥 campaign.
    • Election of delegates听
    • Motion 2 (see Appendix)

Motion 1 concerns our local stance towards calls for Face to Face teaching. If Motion 2 were passed by 果冻影院 UCU it would be submitted for delegates at the SHESC to vote on and then become national policy.

The听听is a one-day online event where delegates will discuss and vote on motions. Delegates are entitled to time off work to attend. If you are interested in attending, please email听ucu@ucl.ac.uk. Election of eight delegates will take place in the meeting.听

Members are entitled to submit amendments to these motions and/or to submit other motions. If you have any enquiries about this, please email听ucu@ucl.ac.uk. We aim to circulate any updated motions, amendments etc on Monday.

果冻影院 UCU executive committee听

Appendix

Motion 1: No return to unsafe workplaces; no face-to-face teaching unless educationally necessary

果冻影院 UCU notes:

  1. The General Secretary鈥檚 call for all universities to teach online in Term 1 at least.
  2. UCU鈥檚 Five Tests* for a safe return to campus.
  3. Official figures record 43,000 deaths from Covid-19. Excess deaths since March 2020 are at least 60,000.
  4. Government calls for a return to workplaces.
  5. Independent SAGE, SAGE and WHO believe social distancing, test, track and isolate and the use of PPE are central to control pandemics. 听

果冻影院 UCU believes:

  1. The General Secretary鈥檚 call on universities and colleges is correct.
  2. UCU鈥檚 Five Tests have not been met.
  3. The Government's call to return to offices is motivated by business concerns rather than public safety.
  4. A second wave of Covid-19 infections is increasingly likely.

果冻影院 UCU resolves:

  1. To call on members to refuse to teach face-to-face, and to work remotely until UCU鈥檚 tests have been met. Exceptions for face-to-face teaching are where the programme team judge it absolutely necessary and H&S reps approve arrangements, i.e. to ensure students with additional communication needs are able to participate, or for lessons which strictly require students to be present, such as surgery.
  2. To call on UCU to organise a series of sector-based "No return to unsafe workplace" online meetings.

*See听

Motion 2: For a sector-wide fight over jobs

Conference notes the successful mobilisation of members in the 鈥楩our Fights鈥 campaign and the fact that the existing 2020-21 claim builds on it.

Conference calls for a new claim building on the existing joint union JNCHES claim. There should be no retreat on pay, while at the same time we should build a serious, detailed fight on jobs.听

Conference resolves that the new claim should include the following concrete demands:

  1. Minimum standards for local policies including:
    • redundancy collective and individual consultation,
    • redeployment and other forms of redundancy avoidance,
    • extending minimum notice periods from three to six months,

    enshrining equal treatment for fixed term and hourly paid staff, and building in thorough equality monitoring.
  2. A sector-wide agreement for redeployment between universities and colleges facilitated by the current online working conditions, with a JNCHES consultative subcommittee to oversee it.

[142 words - 150 word limit]听