Dispute resolved

Breaking news -

23^rd March 2009     3.20pm

The following joint statement has been agreed between the University of Kent and UCU:

“The University and UCU have had further constructive discussions in relation to the future of the School of Biosciences and have agreed upon an acceptable resolution of the matters in issue between them. This successful conclusion to the discussions indicates a renewed spirit  of constructive partnership between management and UCU, and both parties are committed to entering into a Redundancy Avoidance Agreement for the future.   As a result, the threat of compulsory redundancies has now been lifted from UCU members in Biosciences, and UCU has therefore cancelled the planned ballot of its members on taking industrial action which was to commence on Friday 26th March 2010.”

This means that all UCU-members, who were in the ‘at risk’ group are now safe. The workload for every individual member of staff will be allocated through a ‘workload allocation model’ and hence we do not expect major changes in what people are currently doing.

I think it is fair to say that this result was only possible through the tremendous support Biosciences received from the UCU, other schools in the University and, most importantly, from the students. All we can say is a very big

Thank you

for all your support.

Since the fight is now more or less over I think we all can go back to enjoying our work. So please cancel the protest march, which was planned for tomorrow.

At the moment I can’t write much more, because I feel very emotional, but I will keep you posted about further developments.

update

Just a quick update about what is going on in Biosciences:
Members from the UCU (including Bioscience staff) and senior management from the university are in discussion about the current situation in Biosciences, but the university did NOT lift the threat of compulsory redundancies. All we got so far is the promise to look at opportunities for redeployment for those staff ‘at risk’, however, this is what an employer is required to do anyway. Last Tuesday members of the UCU across campus voted unanimously (127-0) to ballot for industrial action, i.e. strike or action short of strike. We – the lecturers and all UCU members – are absolutely adamant that we DO NOT WANT industrial action, but we do not see any other way to get the university to lift the threat of compulsory redundancies and offer people a fair treatment.
The ballot for industrial action will start next Friday and we hope that as many UCU members as possible give their support. The ballot paper contains two questions:

1. “Are you prepared to take industrial action consisting of strike action?” and
2. “Are you prepared to take industrial action consisting of action short of a strike?”

It is important to say that even if (as we hope) the majority will vote with ‘Yes’ to both questions, we DO NOT NEED to take action, as long as the university is willing to guarantee the future of the School of Biosciences, as outlined in an alternative School plan, which has been submitted. Industrial actions can be called off at any point.
We feel that the university is at least listening to what we have to say, so we are moving in the right direction. Still, it is absolutely essential to keep up the pressure on university management to make sure that our future and, most importantly, the future of our students is safe.

Thank you all for your tremendous support – can’t believe we have over a thousand members on our Facebook site. Absolutely incredible.