Oubucu GM 2010-9-28 Mins

oubucu GM 2010-9-28 mins

open university branch

of the university and college union

minutes of the general meeting held on 28th september 2010 in the library presentation room
Present: / Roger Walters, President, Lesley Kane, Hon. Sec and the attendance list ofbranch members.
In attendance: / Deb Shann (Branch Administrator)

1 minutes of the last gENERAL mEETING (13 july 2010)

Approved as a true record.
2 /

matters arising

The motion on abolishing the default retirement age that was passed at the last branch meeting is now going to the JNC.

3 President’s report

Major proposed changes in the management structure of Student Services had been announced earlier that morning in a message to all staff in Student Services. Information on these proposals had also been sent to all Heads of Units, and so members can get the information from their Head of Unitif it had not been cascaded down. There will be a discussion on the changes at the Senate on 13th October 2010. There would be a formal consultation process with UCU shortly but there were concerns tht in practice decisions had already been taken before this process had started.
10th November 2010: Fund our future, joint NUS and UCU demonstration in London – our new branch banner will go to this march and further details to be circulated to all members.
Roger will be writing to the Vice-Chancellor asking him to support the demonstration since there was a shared interest across the sector in protecting the future funding of higher education.
Members had received an email from Sally Hunt, General Secretary, explaining the decision of the Higher Education Committee to defer an industrial action ballot until amore propitious time. The President indicated his full support for the decision and regretted the fact that a faction within the HEC was campaigning publicly against this decision.

4 treasurer’s report

David spoke about UCU subs and changes to members’ Direct debits. Members can now amend their own Direct debit by logging onto the UCU website with their membership number.
Roger pointed out that the change to members being charged at a higher subscription rate unless they notified that they were on a lower salary, was because there was significant underpayment by members who simply overlooked the need to do so. This meant a considerable loss of income to the union and also was a potential problem for such members who would not be eligible for legal assistance if in arrears with subscriptions.

5 Motions put forward by branch members

5.1 motion 1

“The OU UCU branch notes that the HE employers are intent on forcing draconian and unnecessarily extreme changes to the Universities Superannuation Scheme. If implemented, the employers’ agenda will mean:

Lower annual pension increases
An increase in the normal pension age
The abandonment of a final salary scheme for new entrants, creating a two-tier pension scheme with future pressure on existing members
Existing members who are at risk of redundancy, including those on fixed term contracts, who have a break of 6 months or more in service will not be able to rejoin a final salary scheme
An increase in contributions for employees with no progressive proposals to make high earners pay more
Removal of the right for individuals made redundant to take their pension unreduced

This branch that there is a statutory requirement to consult over these changes. This branch calls on the Open University to:

Conduct a consultative ballot on the proposals for change submitted respectively by the Employers’ Pension Forum and the UCU
Publish the result of the ballot to scheme members within the institution
Send the ballot result to USS as the local response to the statutory consultation exercise
Ensure all members of USS are able to engage in the process and that their comments are fully reflected in the institution’s response to USS and that they are published locally

This branch meeting instructs the UCU committee to call a meeting of the appropriate local negotiating/consultation body to discuss the proposed changes to USS and to seek agreement with the employer the terms of the local response to the USS consultation process.”
Proposed: Alan Carr
Seconded: Pauline Collins
Alan Carr explained thatthe USS proposals are now at the stage where the employers have to consult with all USS members and a PR agency is being used to do the consultation. UCU was pressing for a ballot of all USS members but several Universities have refused to conduct a ballot. UCU is conducting its own referendum which is open to non UCU members who were members of, or eligible to join USS who should email with the subject line: “Defend USS”–and they would then be sent a unique link to take part in the UCU referendum. In the first 2 days of the referendum 10,000 USS members voted. Members were urged to do as much as possible to get out information about the ballot to non UCU members and encourage them to take part. Messages to this effect had been posted in the AL Common room. UNISON had circulated details to all memebrs and urged them to take part. It was stressed that all ALs were eligible to join USS and so eligible to take part in the referendum.
The motion was put to a vote and was passed unanimously.
5.2 /

Motion 2

“The OU UCU branch notes that on a national level jobs and provision in Higher Education are under the most serious attack in a generation.
We also note that some of our AL members have already been made redundant from their jobs in other institutions.
We further note that unless the tide is turned it is likely that jobs in the OU will be increasingly at risk.
The OU UCU branch therefore resolves:-

To support the national demonstration on 10th November and seek to maximise attendance from the OU
To support in any way we can the local action taken by other branches against redundancies
To support and take part in any national industrial action that UCU takes in defence of jobs in Higher Education”

Proposed: Lesley Kane
Seconded: John James
Lesley presented her motion to the meeting.
Bruce Heil suggested an amendment to bullet point 2 of the motion, so it now reads:
“To support in any way we can the local action taken by other branches against redundancies, including arranging meetings and inviting speakers from branches who are taking action.”
The amended motion was put to a vote and passed unanimously.
5.3 /

Motion 3

“This UCU branch,while recognising the good intentions of the OU to removethe age baron appointmentsbeyond the defaultretirement age next year, asks forits removal now on applications to allow those affected by the age bar toapply for vacancies likely to arise after the age bar is removed.
The OU UCU branch expresses it concern thatthere is no evidenceof any Equality impact assessment being carried prior to theimposition of the agebar on Associate Lecturers. OU UCU asks the management to conduct a review of how professional equality issues are understood and managed by the OUwithin the appropriateregulatoryframeworks”
Proposed: George Bell
Seconded: Alan Carr
Lesley explained that motion 3 comes from a discussion in the AL Common room. AL recruitment can take up to 6 months so that’s why George has asked for the age to be abolished now. She asked the meeting to support the sprit of the motion and allow the officers to act on this rather than the precise letter.
The motion was put to a vote and passed nem com with 1 absention.
5.4 /

Emergency motion

“OU UCU supports the decision of HEC to defer the proposed ballot on industrial action which was scheduled for this Autumn.
OU UCU recognises that the employers’ “final” pay offer of 0.4% represents a real terms pay cut and is unacceptable. Nevertheless, in current circumstances, the defence of pensions and jobs is a higher priority than pay.
OU UCU, therefore, believes that the appropriate time to ballot for action is early 2011 – after the publication of the Hutton Report on public sector pensions and after the USS Board have taken a decision to implement the draconian and unnecessary cuts to pensions which are being demanded by the employers.”
Proposed: Alan Carr
Seconded: Pauline Collins
Roger explained that the meeting needed first to decide if this motion could be debated as an emergency motion. He advised that this was anemergency since at the time when motions should normally have been submitted, it was not known that a faction on the UCU HEC had decided to campaign against the decision to defer a ballot on industrial action,and it was their action in doing so that made this motion appropriate. The meeting agreed that the motion constituted an emergency motion so could be discussed.
Alan argued that the right time for industrial action is not now and it will have more impact at a later stage, taking action in isolation would be pointless.
Several members commented on the motion and John Robson proposed that the first 2 paragraphs of the motion be deleted. Bruce Heil wished to delete the second paragraph that implies pay is not a priority for members; and he felt it was inappropriate to comment on HEC decisions when most members had not heard the discussion.
Alan spoke against deleting either the first or the second paragraph. It was agreed to vote on each paragraph separately rather than on amendments to delete part of the motion.
Roger Moore proposed a minor amendment to remove the word “much” from the second paragraph. Alan Carr accepted this amendment.
Lesley Kane read out a statement from Richard Bradbury, who opposed the motion.
The motion was put to a vote paragraph by paragraph:
Paragraph 1 – passed overwhelmingly with a handful of votes against and 1 abstention
Paragraph 2 – passed as amended overwhelmingly with a handful of votes against and 1 abstention
Paragraph 3 – passed unanimously
6 / Date of next meeting:AGM Tuesday 23rd November 2010, 12.30pm in the Berrill Lecture Theatre.

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