The UCU Left is a national organisation of University and College Union activists. It is committed to ensuring that the new union has a democratic structure through which members can determine policy, and elected officers and professional officials can be held accountable. It seeks to defend educational equality, and to oppose the consequences of neo-liberal marketisation. It is opposed to all forms of racism, sexism, oppression and imperialism.
Congress 2008 - Fixed-Term & Hourly-Paid Staff
HE28 - Casual contracts - Higher Education Committee

Congress notes that:

  • the UCU's achievements in securing the transfer of many staff from casual to fractional contracts in many institutions;

  • that many members still remain on casual contracts, however,particularly if they do not meet a threshold of annual hours;

  • that though some local hourly pay rates exceed those of the post-92 national contract, most fall significantly below it.
Conference resolves to co-ordinate a campaign across the sector that will address the problem of casualisation, and specifically to:

  • provide local training to ensure equal pay requirements are met;
  • prioritise the replacement of casual contracts with fractional contracts;
  • negotiate hourly rates at least as favourable as those of the post-92 national contract.

CARRIED
HE29 - Hourly paid staff - University College London

Conference notes a small but growing number of successes in forcing the regularisation of contracts of hourly paid staff in both FE and HE. Casualisation can be reversed but it requires a serious campaign by the UCU.

Salary losses have been found in:

  • calculating actual working hours;
  • paying staff on scale points;
  • implementing national pay awards;
  • incrementing salary points;
  • paying holiday pay entitlements.
Conference recognises that cuts in per-student funding and privatisation increase pressures in the direction of further casualisation. The danger is of a race to the bottom where lecturers on employment contracts are replaced by hourly paid staff on poorly regulated contracts, including those described as 'self employed'.

Conference welcomes the work of the Fixed Term and Hourly Paid Committee and resolves to strengthen support for branches at a regional and national level to ensure that lessons are learned and successes generalised.


CARRIED
HE30 - Casualisation and hourly paid staff - University of East London Docklands

Casualisation of academic staff is being is being advanced by measures including the 'permanent' hourly paid contract. Conference resolves to support branches and LAs which challenge attempts by management to impose such contracts.


CARRIED
HE31 - Casualisation - University of Brighton

Conference notes:

  • the UCU's attempts to secure equal pay for work of equal value, and the transfer of many staff from casual to fractional contracts in many institutions
  • that many members still remain on casual contracts, however, particularly if they do not meet a threshold of annual hours
  • that though some local hourly pay rates exceed those of the post-92 national contract, most fall significantly below it.
Conference resolves to:

  • co-ordinate a campaign across the sector that will address the problem of casualisation, and specifically to:

    • provide local training to ensure equal pay requirements are met

    • prioritise the replacement of casual contracts with fractional contracts

    • negotiate hourly rates at least as favourable as those of the post-92 national contract in all local interpretations of national agreements.

CARRIED
HE32 - Hourly Paid Lecturers - London Metropolitan University

In line with previous commitment and agreed policy at UCU Congress 2007 conference calls on the NEC and officials to engage actively in a political and fully legally supported campaign, including test cases, for fractionalisation of hourly paid lecturers in the post 18 sector.


CARRIED

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