ABERDEEN UNIVERSITY & COLLEGE UNION
Minutes: Committee Meeting
Date: 02 July 2014
Time: 1pm
Venue: Taylor C17
In attendance: Rachel Shanks (Chair), Alan Fenwick, Andrew Fraser, Peter Jeffels, Andrew Macgregor, Mike McConnell, John Montgomery, Keith O’Sullivan, Allan Sim, Fiona Stewart, David Watts
Apologies: Alex Arthur, Isobel Ford, Miep Helfrich, Adam Price, Alysia Reid, Ruth Payne
Minutes: Susan Melvin
Topic / Discussion / Action by…1. Welcome / Rachel Shanks welcomed everyone to the meeting
2. Approval of minutes of meeting on 18 June and matters arising / Minutes of the meeting of 18 June were agreed as accurate. All actions raised have been completed. There has been no further feedback re the Staff Disabilities Network.
3. For approval / a) Committee approved the co-option of Peter Jeffels to the Committee.
b) Committee approved Alan Fenwick and David Watts as delegates to the pensions briefing on 22 July.
4. Chair’s report – Rachel Shanks / a) Meetings: Debbie Dyker suggested monthly catch ups outside PNCC. This has been agreed for now, subject to there being 2 UCU reps in attendance.
b) Office facilities: the move of the office to the Regent/Taylor link corridor is looking promising. Susan received notification today that her application for honorary staff status has been approved.
c) IAMS: this is probably going to be stopped.
d) Secure data storage: absence forms go to payroll and then HR so the information is stored securely.
e) Stress survey: this needs more analysis before taking it further. Susan will look through the results and liaise with Gordon Robertson re additional questions in the University’s staff survey in September.
f) Reorganisation of HR: HR are being reorganised (Business Partners, Organisational Development and Transactional Team) and will be "OneSourced" next year.
g) Joint UCU/HR training sessions: joint initiatives are always worthwhile and should be engaged with. Rachel will contact Debbie Dyker to confirm UCU’s willingness to engage with this initiative.
j) Overseas staff: in future the UoA will employ people here in the UK and sending overseas (no further use of agencies)
k) Report back from Court meeting on 1 July: Rachel was unable to attend the Court briefing on 30 June and no-one present was at the Court meeting on 1 July. As branch secretary, Fiona will attend future court briefings.
l) There will be a branch strategy/development meeting on Thursday 21 August. / RS/FS
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5. Update on grievance appeals / A well-attended pre-appeals briefing was held on 30 June. The appeal hearings have now started. Initial feedback suggests that although there is some sympathy for those affected, the University’s stance remains unchanged. It was stressed that the appeals should focus on new evidence of procedural issues rather than being a re-statement of previous evidence.
A legal test case will be heard (Stirling UCU member will take this forward with UCU support).
6. University staff survey / Susan will look at the results of the AUCU stress survey and liaise with Gordon Robertson re addition of any relevant questions to the staff survey that arise from the stress survey results. / SM
7. Capability procedure / Isobel Ford and Alan Fenwick met with Debbie Dyker and Steve Logan on 27 June to discuss the Capability Procedure. DD acknowledged that they were learning from it and that the procedure had become too formal too quickly.
They are also looking at the issue of line management as some line managers are managing too many people for them to be able to manage people effectively.
Alan noted that minutes from capability meetings were not accurate.
Concerns still exist about non-inclusion in the REF being used as a trigger for invoking the capability procedure.
Next steps? a) UCU wish to have the current capability cases withdrawn; b) revisit the REF statement and ask that the “no detriment” clause be more explicitly stated (as before).
Rachel will liaise with Alan, Mackie and Isobel then contact Mary Senior for further advice.
Rachel will ask HR for data on REF inclusion appeals – there may be some equality issues that arise from this. / RS
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8. Reports from Working Groups / a) Probation: David Watts reported on the first meeting of the Probation Working Group. Mike will email Miep with information about progression from Grade 5 to Grade 6.
b) Local Rules: John Montgomery, Mike McConnell and Andrew Macgregor will develop the Local Rules & Standing Orders based on the template provided by UCU HQ / MM
9. Delegates to Congress / UCUS: Rachel and Mike plus 2 to attend UCUS in March (Stirling)
UCU National: 2 to be decided (Glasgow)
10. AOB / a) Example of good working relations will be collated and sent to UCUS for inclusion in a TUC report.
b) Motions (if any) for STUC conferences will be forwarded to the regional office.
c) Alan suggested that the branch propose national affiliation with the Council for Defence of British Universities. Susan will research CDBU.
d) Recruitment of new members: an email will be sent to all staff (September) – if HR will not provide email lists, ask UCU HQ about “spider” software. / SM
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MEETING CLOSED AT 1.57
Next meeting – Wed 6 August, 1pm, Edward Wright S86
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