The branch engages with management in a number of ways to represent the interests of members and employees more broadly.
Trade Union University Group (TUUG)
This is a formal meeting between the employer and the three campus trade unions (UCU, Unite and Unison), and is the primary vehicle for direct engagement on strategic employment matters.
Each campus trade union can send two delegates to the meeting and the employer should send two representatives from the Executive Board, typically the head of People/HR and either the VC or a DVC.
TUUG convenes every two months and all unions can submit items for the agenda. It should be for wider/more general issues. The branch typically sends the President and Vice-President, but it is up to the committee and with other commitments we quite commonly need to bring in alternates as is the case now in the absence of an elected VP.
HR Catch-Ups
These are more frequent meetings, about every 4-6 weeks. They are more about technical issues, e.g. in school X leave is not being approved correctly.
Often there will not be anyone present from the Executive Board, just the Associate Director(s) of HR. UCU can (and does) nominate different delegates for the meetings, both to give opportunities for other committee members to become more involved and to cover absences as appropriate.
Policy Review meetings, and other more temporary meetings
These are meetings where there are policies or other specific matters to be consulted or negotiated on. Typically, the President and Vice-President are invited, but may nominate alternates based on the topics and to broaden committee member engagement.
Organisational Change Forum (OCF)
At the time of publishing this post, OCF is a new formal meeting that we anticipate will be established shortly (Autumn 2024).
OCF replaces the now defunct Employment Security Forum (ESF), and will deal with all matters relating to organisational change (OC), allowing TUUG to focus on more strategic discussions. Again, there are 2 UCU delegates which given the import of OC discussions would ordinarily be the branch President and Vice-President (or alternate).
Health and Safety
UCU has an elected H&S Officer that is empowered by legislation to undertake whatever actions are necessary to ensure safety. This will include involvement in a range of H&S meetings and activities and attending H&S incidents to observe the management response. Management are OBLIGED to engage with UCU on H&S and to notify the H&S Officer as soon as practicably possible to allow them to fulfil their role.
Health and Safety Committee (HSC)
The University Health & Safety Committee is a statutory obligation that is established at the behest of campus trade unions. Membership consists of equal representation from management and trade union in accordance with legislation. UCU is represented by its nominated H&S Officer.
Health and Safety Panels
There are H&S panels for each of the faculties, and discrete areas of professional services. UCU is represented by its H&S Officer where there is no local UCU H&S representative; UCU is represented on the FoLS H&S panel by a committee member based in the faculty.
Academic Workload Monitoring Group (AWMG)
There is a UCU delegate on the AWMG.
FoLS People Committee
This is an unconventional invention by the Dean of FoLS that fails to recognise the status of UCU as the voice of all staff and which we have only after some struggles managed to get a UCU delegate on.