Apologies: Pamela Beevers, Toby Abse, Natalie Fenton

1. Dates of next exec meeting and general meeting
Future meetings will be on Wednesdays at 1PM; dates will be decided over email. The next general meeting will follow the next exec meeting.

2. Pay Forum Update
Ben Levitas attended 2 meetings.The first was the working party on VTs. Andy Fisher was present as a part-time rep for UCU. We discussed calculating pay based on 2.5 hours prep for 1 hour contact time + 1 hour pay for 1 hour work, for marking. HR to consider this proposal.  We are also asking for concrete proposals on fractionality. 

The second meeting was a pay forum meeting where a great deal was tabled but then deferred particularly promotions criteria (Sept 09 for academic and academic-related staff). Management came up with verbal reports, which were rather ad hoc, but flagged up issues we might have in the future, such as making sure everyone had a position on the pay spine.  There are now 10 remaining people red-circled. The list has fluctuated due to staff turnover. There have been 39 appeals (red, white and green). 17 of those are completed at the informal stage; 1 or 2 have gone to the formal stage, 1 or 2 have yet to be processed.

The meeting also discussed issues concerning weekend working, emergency call-outs, standby and overtime. HR appear to be saying that the working week was now a minimum of 35 hours, for people on grades 6-10. Health and safety measures would be brought in when people are working an average of 48 hours/week. This has implications on fractionality as well.

We also flagged the issues of different career pathways for academic- and non-academic staff.

Ruth Levin is now the rep for UNISON.

*ACTION POINT:  Ben and Duncan will draft a 2 line email to members about promotions.

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3. IT Services Issues
Des and Pamela attended a meeting with Chris Pearson and Steve Collins.  This led to a larger meeting with FR (UCU rep) and Basem, the HoD. There are a range of issues including callout and emergency work, pressures on holiday time. We have called for another meeting and are waiting for a response from Chris. The current proposal (which is being worked on) is for a rota for scheduled work. But the current situation is that these are decided by agreement. In the future, we need a better understanding of how IT Services staff see the issues. The standby/overtime issue is also a concern for library staff.

It was agreed that a survey examining the work/life balance for all staff in IT Services was needed.

4. Registry Restructuring Proposals
We had a good meeting involving most of the UCU members who are affected by the proposals and sent a formal UCU response to the situation (which is on the website) arguing that the proposals are too vague and that more time is needed to assess the real issues. We have not received a formal response from management. Hugh Jones has agreed to attach the UCU document as an appendix to the academic board.

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5. INTO
The on-campus joint venture with INTO is effectively dead in the water. Management is investigating other proposals: possibly for a feeder college for institutions (who we would then take). They have not told the unions anything formally, although they raised the issue at academic board and communicated with staff.

6. Performance and Development Review
There is a HR template which is being used although we are aware that at least one other department has adapted it in a problematic way, using a lot of HERA language around measuring performance rather than focusing on development needs. We will continue to pay attention to what happens in this department.  IT Services has asked for training in preparation for their PDRs and also to see the copy of the form.

7 Report back from Dec 3 event and anticasualisation campaign

11 people attended the event and 2 people volunteered to help with the pay forum. We should organise other events and continue to try to recruit. We could have a week of surgeries (5 lunchtimes) with Kay, Kirsten and possibly Pamela, when it's relevant to casework. The surgery would be open to members and non members.

ACTION POINT: Kay and Kirsten will send out a brief information email about what happened on the session to the wider part-time list; Kirsten will also attach this to the weekly campaigns email to GUCU members.

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8. Gift for Malcolm Keight
ACTION POINT: Duncan will send £50.

9. Proposal for response for new Home Office Regulations for spying on international students
Alberto Toscano has a proposal for noncompliance with the new Home Office regulations, which are due to come into effect in March 2009. The Student Union has also passed a motion calling on lecturers to not comply with the regulations. UCU is also starting a national campaign on this issue. We are still waiting to hear about legal information from UCU HQ about the implications of noncompliance. We also need to find out more about how, practically, the UK Border Agency will get hold of the information, and how this works with the College website.

DECISION: Agreed. The motion will go to the regional branch meeting, pending updated instructions after we hear back from UCU head office about legal issues.
ACTION POINT: Kirsten will ask Alberto about what exactly is involved in monitoring students, as it probably involves extra duties—and so we need to find out what those are.

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For an archive of older meetings, look here.

Any questions? email us at gucu-admin@gold.ac.uk.