This branch notes
• the hardship loss of pay and pension contributions faced by staff on account of the University senior management’s decision to delay the implementation of the nationally negotiated pay award;
• The significant ‘savings’ of circa £4.5m already generated by the University and borne by staff as a result of the non-implementation of the pay award and other austerity measures;
• Member concerns about the financial awards for certain members of the senior managers despite the current climate of cuts for staff;
• the repeated use by management of terminology such as “deficit” when justifying the potential cuts to staff jobs and pay, when concerns arise from shortfalls against overambitious and misguided student recruitment targets;
• member concerns over the ongoing ‘targeted’ voluntary redundancy scheme including;
o The flawed use of the Student-Staff-Ratio (SSR) as a shorthand metric to select departments or areas for targeting, especially given the differences in requirements in affected areas. Using SSR metrics in isolation presents a partial and misleading evidence base for making employment decisions.
o concerns about the specific targeting of the Chemistry department on spurious grounds related to skewed measures of departmental performance and SSR.
o concerns about delivery of future targets & educational standards; increased workload and potential pressure on staff arising from a poorly conceived or implemented plan of restructure and redundancies.
• that staff and students should not have to bear the future consequences of poor prioritisation of resources by senior management in the run-up to such shortfalls
• That staff and students should not have to shoulder the future consequences of poor staffing arising from a flawed redundancy process
• the urgency of the present situation, and the increasing efforts by some universities across the UK to create a climate of fear that preys upon sectoral underfunding, and some universities announcing cuts to provide this as an excuse to normalise wider unjustified cuts across the sector
This branch further notes that
• the Reading UCU negotiation team have asked the Vice-Chancellor that senior management give a written undertaking that there will be no compulsory redundancies before 31 December 2025.
• the Vice-Chancellor has undertaken to consider this request and will respond to UCU.
If senior management do not agree to provide the requested assurance that no compulsory redundancies will be made before 31 December 2025, this branch instructs the branch committee to
• request that the UCU Regional Office writes to the University of Reading to declare a trade dispute;
• initiate the necessary steps to immediately call a statutory ballot for strike action and action short of strike action (ASOS) and to begin mobilising for action;
• seek volunteers from amongst UCU members to begin to organise a get the vote out (GTVO) plan to ensure maximum participation in the ballot and exceed the 50% turnout threshold necessary for action to be authorised;
• initiate actions to improve the size and health of the local hardship fund and encourage members who may have a need to claim from the fund, so that if sustained action is required, then members are adequately supported;
• encourage members to contact local elected representatives to inform them of the developing situation and to seek their support;
• encourage members to seek support for RUCU from students, alumni, external funders and professional bodies;
• seek assistance from sister unions and community bodies including via the Reading Trades Council.