Holyrood Education Committee Must Oppose Pensions Increase say EIS

Posted on March 26, 2013 by

The Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) – the country’s largest teaching union which represents 80% of teachers and lecturers – has today urged the Members of the Scottish Parliament’s Education and Culture Committee to oppose the Scottish Government’s desire to impose a further increase in the pension contributions paid by the country’s teachers and lecturers.  EIS members have been writing to each member of the Committee, highlighting the negative impact on the living standards and morale of Scotland’s teaching workforce should the Scottish Government push ahead with the planned imposition.

Speaking ahead of the Committee meeting, EIS General Secretary Larry Flanagan said, “The additional increase in teachers’ and lecturers’ pension contributions that the Scottish Government intends to impose is, in reality, an additional tax on teaching professionals – not one penny of this cash-grab will go into teachers’ or lecturers’ pensions. It is shameful that a Scottish Government which claims to oppose the UK Government’s austerity drive and continuing attacks on public sector workers should choose to meekly replicate this coalition-designed teacher tax in Scotland.”

Mr Flanagan continued, “The 1.2% increase in pension contributions – higher than the capped pay increase of 1% currently on offer to public sector workers – will result in yet another real-terms pay cut for hard-pressed teachers and lecturers this year.  This latest increase would push the average pension contribution deduction from teaching staff to almost 9% of their pay.  As inflation continues to push the cost of living to record levels, another year of pay decline will be unacceptable to Scotland’s dedicated teaching professionals.”

Welcoming a Motion to reject the pension increase, to be introduced to the Committee today by the Deputy Convener Neil Findlay, Mr Flanagan added, “The EIS would like to thank Mr Findlay for bringing this important issue before the Committee.  We would urge all Members of the Committee to vote in good conscience today to protect Scottish education, and support the proposal to overturn this damaging additional tax on Scotland’s hard-working teaching professionals.”

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GCU Students say no to sexual exploitation

Posted on March 25, 2013 by

On International Women’s Day 2013 the GCU Students Union Debating Society held a debate about ending exploitation of women, which the local UCU was pleased to sponsor – here’s a taste of the debate.

Thanks to Lesley Roy and Calum Leslie for the filming and production  @lroyjournalist and @calumsleslie

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The Higher Education sector is no place for profit seekers says UCU

Posted on March 25, 2013 by

UCU today cautiously welcomed news in the budget that the government has decided against allowing for-profit providers of higher education VAT exemption.

UCU led the campaign against the move and wrote to the minister for universities and science, David Willetts, asking him to block any moves to grant for-profit providers of education exemption from VAT.

The union argued that VAT exemption should not be granted to companies whose primary mission is to reward shareholders, rather than the provision of education. The union’s concerns were shared by the business, innovation and skills committee, who repeatedly questioned ministers on how a VAT cut for for-profit companies would affect the health of the sector.

Under current rules, universities and colleges are exempt from paying VAT on education services they provide because of their not-for-profit status. Today’s budget suggests that privilege will not be extended to for-profit education providers.

UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: ‘The government must not allow companies seeking to make profit out of higher education access to a VAT break and we are pleased today’s budget appears to back our call.

‘We don’t doubt people looking to make a quick buck out of our higher education system will continue to circle the sector, but giving them tax breaks does not create a level-playing field as some have argued. Any tax breaks, on top of their ability to raise capital from the markets, could lead to established universities being undercut by for-profits delivering only courses likely to make them money.’

Dr Douglas Chalmers, Vice President elect of UCU Scotland also welcomed this move saying: “Our view is that there is too much marketisation of Higher Education already and for-profit providers will only exacerbate the situation further, by seeking to pick off lucrative areas within Higher Education and leaving the public sector to pick up the pieces. Our view is – Higher Education is not Business as Usual – it’s different and needs to stay different. It gives all the more reason that the knowledge economy campaign ought to be supported “

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International Women’s Day debate takes off at GCU

Posted on March 9, 2013 by
Rachel Russell and Emily Thomson led the discussion

Rachel Russell and Emily Thomson led the discussion

Following a scurrilous report in the Daily Telegraph which suggested that female students at Glasgow Caledonian  had been signing up to a sexploitation website, the GCU Association debating society decided to run a debate on this, on International Women’s Day, sponsored by the local UCU.

Featured by STV, the debate clearly struck a chord with students and staff alike. The students had extensively postered and union members leafleted in the morning -

IWD leafleting

Almost a thousand leaflets distributed in less than 30 minutes

although the union sponsored buffet at the debate (which soon disappeared) was perhaps an additional attraction…..

The session started with the replay of the brilliant video on International Womens Day in  Scotland

 produced last year by former GCU multimedia journalists Rachel Fulton and Aimee Beveridge.

Following the video,  Emily Thomson, Equalities Officer for the local UCU, led off the discussion by looking at the increased economic pressures on women including the incredible statistic that 74% of all recent cuts have specifically targeted women. Emily’s introduction can be heard here and her presentation can be downloaded from here

Rachel Russell first of all questioned the concept of ‘lifestyle’ placing it in the context of available choices including equality and sexual inequality. She pointed out the continuing inequality in terms of salaries between male and female graduates and then looked at the significance of sex work and what it was, before looking at the recent t-shirt controversy,

tshirt2

tshirt1and the gendered media discourse about women and sexuality including in the Daily Telegraph.

Rachel’s introduction can be heard here, and her presentation can be downloaded from here.

The event was filmed and access will be made available to the film as soon as it is processed.

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Local UCU officer elected as UCU Scotland Vice President

Posted on March 9, 2013 by
The UCU intends to broaden its work over the coming period

The UCU – hoping to work on an increasing range of interests and concern for their members

Douglas Chalmers, local President of the UCU@GCU announced he felt honoured to be elected as Scottish vice president of the UCU in their current elections. Receiving almost twice as many votes as his opponent in the election, Douglas said “The union in Scotland and in the rest of the UK, faces some difficult times ahead, but there’s never been a need for a stronger UCU, due to the increase in managerialism in our universities.

We have a real vision for transforming Higher Education in Scotland, and are determined to do this – working with our sister unions to ensure a positive future for all in the sector. Our branch is working on an increasing range of issues of interest and concern for our members and looks forward to broadening our work over the next period at GCU. If I was asked for a theme for our work in the near future its going to be –  The UCU, it’s not ‘Business as usual.’

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UCU Vice Presidential Candidate outlines why UCU at Glasgow Caledonian is growing

Posted on February 18, 2013 by

Innovative activity on issues such as International Women’s Day, Equality and Diversity, Student Support, Health and Wellbeing, as well as successful action against threatenened redundancies, on pensions and against cuts in real wages have helped make UCU at GCU the leading  branch in Scotland in terms of growth, according to Douglas Chalmers, President of the local UCU branch. Douglas is standing in the current election for Vice President of the UCU in Scotland, and Vince Mills, VP of the local UCU branch put some questions to Douglas regarding some of the main issues facing the union and Scottish education. This can be found below.

Andy Samuels of Abertay University is also contesting the position of Vice President UCU Scotland

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Withholding pay – GCU Management steps back from the brink – but needs to go further

Posted on October 31, 2012 by

Unions at GCU welcomed the ‘clarification’ statement released by HR following our protestation at the proposal to withhold wages from staff involved in action short of a strike.

Following our protests and communication with HR, all staff have now had the university’s new position outlined as follows:

“Dear Colleagues

EIS has now clarified the nature of the proposed action short of a strike – information we didn’t have when I wrote to colleagues earlier this week. The University doesn’t consider that any of the action advocated by EIS in its most recent communication to the University would cause the University to invoke its policy of withholding pay for partial performance.  I hope this clarifies the position but do please contact your HR BP if you have any queries”.

All very welcome, and well as it goes perhaps, but reference to the university’s ‘policy of withholding pay for partial performance’ sounds to the impartial reader like an implicit threat held in reserve.  Our staff don’t ‘partially perform’ – they over perform, in increasingly difficult circumstances. The staff survey showed just how committed our staff are to the future of the university – and, indeed also indicated where it was felt that partial performance was really being carried out – confidence in the performance of Senior Management (even amongst Senior Management) was very low.

Our management need to look at how to better invest in the staff who are keeping this university going – and keeping it up in the esteem it is held in, in Scotland. We need a positive approach from our management in support of staff aspirations on wages and pensions.

Dr Nick McKerrell, Convenor of the EIS/ULA at GCU, said “EIS members welcome the clarification of management’s position at GCU.  It is a shame that they rushed in using bullying language rather than waiting to see what our industrial action consisted of.  However members have to be vigilant in their campaign for fair pay for all in Higher Education to make sure that GCU will not resurrect these threats as the industrial action continues”

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