HudUCU News Update

Some national news which may be of interest to our members here in Huddersfield …

• Recorded lecture material has become even more of a hot topic during recent events, as more content goes online. UCU is warning universities and colleges in the UK they may face industrial disputes if they misuse recorded lectures and withhold performance rights from staff. UCU’s position is that giving a lecture is considered a ‘performance’ for the purpose intellectual property law.

• UCU will be balloting members for strike action over USS pensions, pay, unsafe workloads, casualisation and equality failings. Ballots will run from Monday 18 October to Thursday 4 November. 152 institutions will be balloted in total.

• The government has issued a response to the consultation on proposals to remove the discrimination caused by the career average pension scheme introduced in April 2015. Full details here.

HudUCU Message from the Chair

Welcome back everyone. I hope you all had a good summer and managed to have a well-deserved break from work.

You may have seen from recent emails that there is a lot going on at the moment. We are running a survey on members’ views on the university decision to drop mandatory mask wearing on campus; we are working hard on behalf of Jonathan Duxbury, to get the university to honour the recent Industrial Tribunal decision that he should be reinstated; and we continue our discussions with senior management and HR on workload modelling. As always, it is the intention of the Branch Committee to represent your views, so please keep filling in the surveys and talking to your reps.

We are, as ever, looking for volunteers to take up positions on the Branch Committee and/or as School or Department Reps. If you are interested then please contact Gary or Anna.

And finally, good luck for the term ahead.

HudUCU Myth Buster

“Will joining a trade union be detrimental to my career?”

An employer cannot discriminate against you for joining a trade union. You cannot be treated unfairly or dismissed because you have joined a trade union. If your employer does discriminate against you, you could make a complaint to an employment tribunal.

HudUCU Face Coverings Survey Result

Q1 – You work in the School of:

1 Applied Sciences – 7.25%, 14
2 Arts and Humanities – 27.46%, 53
3 Business -10.88%, 21
4 Computing and Engineering – 10.36%, 20
5 Education and Professional Development – 8.29%, 16
6 Human and Health Sciences – 23.32%, 45
7 Other 7.25% – 14
8 Prefer not to say – 4.15%, 8
9 Student Support Services – 1.04%, 2
Total 100% 193

Q2 – At the present moment, are you in favour of making the wearing of face coverings
inside the University buildings voluntary?

1 Yes 22.80% 44
2 No 66.84% 129
3 Undecided 10.36% 20
Total 100% 193

Q3 – If you answered “Yes” to question 2, why are you in favour of making face coverings
voluntary (select all that apply)?

1 Face coverings are difficult to wear for prolonged periods of time 27.89% 41
2 Face coverings hinder human interaction (e.g. they make it hard to express emotions) 26.53% 39
3 Your work makes face coverings impractical (e.g. you teach wind instruments) 8.16% 12
4 The wearing of face coverings will be very difficult to enforce on campus 18.37% 27
5 Many students are or will be against the wearing of face coverings 9.52% 14
6 Other 9.52% 14

Total 100% 147

Q4 – If you answered “No” to question 2, why are you against making face coverings
voluntary (select all that apply)?

1 You are concerned about the possibility of virus transmission on campus 52.12% 135
2 You are in the “vulnerable” category in relation to Covid-19 12.36% 32
3 You cannot accept Covid-19 vaccination for medical reasons 1.16% 3
4 You frequently interact with people (e.g. family and friends) who are “vulnerable” and/or
cannot accept Covid-19 vaccination for medical reasons 26.25% 68
5 Other 8.11% 21
Total 100% 259

Q5 If you answered “No” to question 2, what are your plans in relation to your work

1 You will work as was planned before the VC’s announcement, including delivering oncampus teaching and attending on-campus meetings 35.81% 77
2 You are considering requesting to work from home, including teaching online 17.67% 38
3 You are considering requiring students who interact with you to wear a face covering 32.09% 69
4 You are considering resigning from your post 5.12% 11
5 Other 9.30% 20
Total 100% 215

Q6 – Are you satisfied with the way the University management made the decision to
remove the face covering requirement (the decision was made by the University Business
Continuity Management Group)? Please select all that apply.

Yes 4.93% 20
2 No, there should have been a University-wide consultation with staff 30.30% 123
3 No, there should have been a University-wide consultation with students 18.72% 76
4 No, there should have been a discussion at the University Health and Safety committee 23.65% 96
5 No, we should not consider removing face covering requirement at all at this point 19.21% 78
6 Undecided 3.20% 13
Total 100% 406

Face Coverings Survey

On the 13th of September, all staff at the University of Huddersfield received a message from the Vice Chancellor announcing the end of the requirement to wear face coverings inside campus buildings. Staff and students are still encouraged to wear masks but are not required to do so.  

The Huddersfield UCU branch committee received several messages from members objecting to this decision. Branch committee members are planning to discuss the decision to remove the face covering requirement with the management. To gather data that would support this discussion, all academic staff at the University of Huddersfield are invited to express their views on the decision in this brief and confidential survey. The survey will close at noon this coming Friday the 17^th of September. The results will be communicated to all UCU members at Huddersfield a few days after the survey completion.

Please click here for the survey