UCU members - please sign the letter
your name will appear on this google doc: https://docs.google.com/document/d/e/2PACX-1vShYnwDNGGLqXxzSIULcGOYYDHGQKmWut0-emnlk6341BPX_0Ov6hL3hkNaAVr99zzOooRCdTFle9Cl/pub
Dear University Executive Board,
We are writing as concerned members of staff across Newcastle University to convey our anger and disappointment at the ways in which financial restrictions are having a disproportionate impact on colleagues on insecure, precarious employment contracts - an issue which particularly affects women, people of colour and working-class members of staff.
We are alarmed by the evident lack of care which has been taken in making such decisions. In all faculties we are hearing examples of much valued colleagues having their lives turned upside down as they worry about whether they will be able to pay bills and rent and where their next payslip will come from.
- Promises of hourly paid work this and next semester to PGRs, Associate Lecturers and other hourly paid colleagues are not being honoured. Whether retracted outright or being told this is subject to decisions that lack transparency and will leave colleagues in uncertainty whilst being decided.
A highly varied mix of contracts, fees forms, hourly paid, etc. as departments scramble to cover necessary teaching within the approval structures. Leading to anxiety and stress over employment and cases of underpayment for duties.
Fixed-term colleagues who have been promised contract extensions which are now not being honoured.
Research colleagues who are expected to be applying for funding to continue employment on other projects having the support for funding applications withdrawn as part of the cuts.
Colleagues have had contractually agreed provisions retracted.
The labour of colleagues often seems to be almost invisible to the University Executive Board: associate lecturers, studio demonstrators, workshop leaders, researchers, etc. It is outrageous that they should bear the brunt of the financial restrictions brought about by an unsustainable funding model, lack of foresight and institutional decisions in which they have no say.
We therefore demand that senior leaders of the university commit to ensuring that the implementation of the cuts does not lead to loss of work and underpayment of our precarious colleagues. Including:
A commitment that all promises of work and requests to undertake duties, whether written or verbal, be confirmed and implemented with urgency. To empower all heads of unit and other line managers to implement promised work with immediate effect.
To ensure that colleagues who rely upon ongoing research funding receive full support in developing proposals.
To continue to engage with UCU regarding the precarity of research positions and prioritise institutional work to reduce the links between funding and security of employment.
To affirm that any contractual provisions will be honoured.
To commit to protecting the most precariously employed colleagues, and develop mitigation measures for the inequalities already arising from the implementation of the cuts
