RUCU subs increase motion
Reading UCU notes that
• RUCU local subscriptions income fluctuates with membership fluctuations
• local subscriptions currently bring in roughly £16k per year, which goes towards funding a branch administrator, small local events, subscription fees including publications and online access to information resources, as well as supporting the hardship fund
• local subscription rates have been frozen for the past eight years
• Reading UCU local subscriptions for 2024-25 are currently set at the following rates per month:
– F0 (£60K and above) £3.00
– F1 (£40K-£60K) £2.50
– F2 (£30K-£40K) £1.50
– F3 (£22K-£30K) £1.00
– Below £22K, retired and £0.00
attached members
• RUCU expenses across these categories have naturally risen over a decade and we wish to continue to be a fair employer. We want to ensure that our books remain balanced.
• we remain committed to keeping subs progressive and as low as reasonably possible. Balancing these goals we have done some modelling to justify a small increase to RUCU subs. The RUCU branch committee proposes this increase of between £0.25 to £1.50 for members paying local subs. The zero rate for members earning below £22k, attached members and retired members will continue to be observed
• all members are reminded that union subscriptions, including local subs, are 2/3 tax exempt (see https://my.ucu.org.uk/app/answers/detail/a_id/469/~/tax-relief-on-subscriptions)
Reading UCU resolves
• to increase local subscriptions in line with UCU policy by the following progressive amounts:
– F0 (£60K and above) £1.50
– F1 (£40K-£60K) £1.00
– F2 (£30K-£40K) £0.50
– F3 (£22K-£30K) £.025
– Below £22K, retired and £0.00
attached members
• to remind members to claim tax relief on their subscriptions
Defend our Professional Services Motion
This branch notes that
• Professional services staff are integral to the working of schools and services across the university.
• University senior management need to prioritise these staff, not just in word but in deed. Professional services functions that support the work of the university, students and staff should be adequately staffed and our PS colleagues should have permanent secure contracts.
• Professional Services transformation work continues at the university across the Directorates.
• reductions to Professional Services staffing not just in grades represented by UCU but also in other grades are of grave concern. This comes from the understanding that the loss of these valued, experienced and capable colleagues is in the long term, detrimental to all staff students and at our university.
• we remain vigilant to the threats to our members’ roles and to staff workloads as the senior management strategy is implemented.
• we remain acutely aware of the losses to the university and the long term consequences to all staff and students as a result of the PAS restructure not so long ago.
• that the senior management strategy of redistributing work and not backfilling vacancies has had very negative consequences to students and staff.
• The increased workload, reduced progression and curtailed roles will have a negative impact on equality.
This branch instructs the branch committee to
• Oppose all compulsory redundancies (CR) and to recognise that so called voluntary redundancies (VR) are not always voluntary and that they have a knock on impact on the workload and stress levels of all staff.
• Ensure that suitable and sufficient stress risk assessment is in place for upcoming changes, including in the case of non-replacement of staff who leave their roles.
• Encourage reps in the various functions to help carry out critical evaluation of stress risk assessments and / or to be workload reps in their respective areas so as to take forward this work.
• Reiterate Reading UCU commitment to permanent and secure employment for all staff.
USS Defined Benefit (DB) and Indexation motion
This branch notes that
• In Defined Benefit pension schemes such as USS, it is necessary to protect the value of pension entitlements given that our benefits are based on earnings over a long period and this is our future pay in retirement
• Pension indexation refers to how future increases in pension are calculated. These are needed to provide members with a degree of inflation – or ‘cost of living’ – protection to, and through, their retirement
• USS annual pension increases are currently calculated based on Consumer Price Index (CPI) inflation. The rate is matched up to 5%CPI, then only at 50% for CPI over 5% and with a cap on total increase of 10%.
• UCU are currently exploring use of conditional indexation (CI). This is where the future increases (indexation) applied to benefits built up are conditional on the funding position of the scheme
• This would allow employers to undermine the DB scheme, by trading off conditionality in DB for the potentially unrealised possibility of higher returns or the carrot of lower contributions, and is a dangerous and slippery slope
This branch also notes
• the significant sacrifices made by our members over several years to save our USS DB pension
• the surplus in the Scheme
• how flaws in the valuation methodology have skewed our perception of the health of the Scheme by overemphasising a possible deficit in the past, and the importance of addressing these
This branch asks national negotiators to
• Negotiate for improved benefits without an increase in contributions and to prioritise restoring full CPI inflation protection followed by augmentation (compensation to cover past losses) for all members.
• Oppose the possibility of conditional indexation
Palestine Solidarity Motion
This Annual General Meeting of the Reading UCU branch is
• horrified by the systematic slaughter of civilians, including medical professionals and journalists, particularly over the past year and a half in the Gaza Strip and in the occupied West Bank.
The AGM notes that
• in contradiction with Israel’s obligations of international law – in particular, the obligation to ensure the protection of civilian populations – the people of Gaza are experiencing starvation as a result of the blockade by Israel of food and medicines into the strip.
• Children have been killed by the Israeli military at an unprecedented rate. Nearly 200 journalists and media professionals have perished in the military operations carried out by the Israeli army in Gaza resulting in a media blackout, at a time when a growing number of international NGOs and UN bodies are describing them as acts of genocide.
• Over 95% of schools and universities are damaged or destroyed – forcing children and young adults to miss out on their education for a second year which creates a dangerous legacy.
• Hospitals have been destroyed and medical professionals tortured and brutalised,
Meanwhile in the West,
• repression of Palestinian solidarity and rights activism is intensifying at universities threatening academic freedom.
• Scholars criticising the violence perpetrated by Israel or calling for Palestinian rights are harassed, intimidated and silenced.
• Careers have been destroyed, public statements and job offers withdrawn, and critical debates and events on Palestine cancelled or interrupted by the police.
• Palestinian students and scholars are particularly targeted, as are people of colour and anti-Zionist Jews accused of betraying their heritage.
• Critical theoretical frameworks used to understand Palestinian dispossession – including settler colonialism and Apartheid, even comparisons and contextualisation– are censored
This branch
• expresses solidarity with the Palestinian people and those coming to their aid, notably the aid ship Madleen that was illegally stopped in international waters.
• makes a donation of £500 towards Medical Aid for Palestinians
• continues to oppose the possible genocide in Palestine and the illegal occupation of Palestinian land