Newcastle College UCU

UCU will be taking part in a day of national industrial action on 30^th of November 2011 in protest to the disgraceful attempt by the Government to slash public sector pensions.

UCU are asking its members to stand side by side with other public sector workers to send a clear message to the Government that we did not cause the current recession so should not have to sacrifice our pensions to pay for it.

If the Government gets its way:

• A 38 year old lecturer B who has paid into the pension for 10 years could see their pensions slashed by £147,587
• A 26 year old lecturer A who has paid into the pension for 4 years could lose a colossal £176,000

To see just how much the government want to take off YOU use UCU pensions loss calculator at http://www.ucu.org.uk/index.cfm?articleid=5523 For more information on the day of action please contact a UCU rep or email regional office gateshead@ucu.org.uk

There are a number of people in the North East now who have been sufficiently concerned about the recent activities of Newcastle College management that they have taken their concerns to Chi Onwurah, MP for the College, and also to their own MPs. Chi has now written stating the following:

06 July 2011

Dear

Thank you for contacting me on this very important subject.

I met with Jackie Fisher and Bev Robinson, the principals of Newcastle College Group and Newcastle College respectively, on Friday July 1st and I raised your concerns.

Jackie Fisher made the following points:

• The Coalition Government’s Further Education priorities are a significant change on those of the last Labour administration.  In response Newcastle College needs to teach more courses below Level 3  and this is why it has to make the redundancies at Level B, whilst taking on more staff at Instructor and Level A grades.  Dame Fisher refused to describe this as de-skilling but was very clear that it was in response to the new Government’s new agenda.
• Newcastle College Group is business. Dame Fisher made it clear she believes Further Education colleges are in the private sector even if for the moment they are technically public sector organisations.  As such Newcastle College will not keep ‘on the books’ employees for whom  there is not an immediate need.
• The strategic objective of Newcastle College Group is to become a nationwide provider of education services. Reserves and surpluses are used in support of that objective rather than to support a specific institution – eg to support Newcastle College during this difficult period.  Dame Fisher told me that the Group is committed to Newcastle, describing it as one of the Group’s two heartlands.  She cited the investment in the new Sixth Form college as an example of that commitment.
• The Group needs to continue to generate surpluses in order to finance continued expansion, as well as schemes such as Newcastle Educational Maintenance Allowance (NEMA) which will help make up for the Coalition’s abolition of the Educational Maintenance Allowance.
• On pay, Dame Fisher said that her pay was average for a ‘bog standard’ FE college when Newcastle College Group was one of the largest in the country.  The retention payment had been necessary to ensure she did not leave the group during a key period in its expansion.

Both principals made in clear that they are absolutely committed to the reorganisation and redundancy programme which they see as critical to the continued expansion of the Group.  Under the Group’s structure, the principals  are responsible for the management of the College with accountability to their Board and their contract  ‘customers’  -  mainly Ministers of State – rather than to the city of Newcastle or to Parliament.

I therefore feel that I cannot take these issues further, and I am sorry the outcome is not what you would have hoped.  However I do think my discussions with the College have at least clarified their position.  I will pursue the issues of remuneration, accountability and governance with the relevant Ministers of State and will keep you updated if you so wish.

All the best

Chi Onwurah
Labour MP for Newcastle upon Tyne Central

Bullying and stress is a serious issue at work. UCU takes these issues very seriously and there may be legal implications for employers who ignore their duty of care towards employees. There has been an unprecedented increase in the number of incidents of bullying reported to Newcastle College UCU Branch and for this reason UCU is conducting a survey for past and present employees of Rye Hill Campus.

The survey is entirely confidential. However, you are encouraged to leave your name and a  contact phone number and email as we may need to get back to you with advice.

Two policies available on the College intranet which may be useful for staff are the “Respect and Consideration for Others”  policy and the “Grievance Procedure”. Both of these are also available here:

Respect and Consideration for Others

Grievance Procedure

If you wish to take part in the Bullying and Stress Survey please follow this link.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/NCLBULLY

This survey is confidential and is open to all employees of Rye Hill Campus, past and present. This survey is NOT restricted to UCU members please feel free to pass this information to staff who may be affected.

COMMON QUESTIONS ASKED OF REPS.

A number of themes have emerged from members in questions they have asked of reps. We aim to answer all questions in the most efficient manner please so consult these Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) before asking a us. So that this resource can be added to in a timely manner it would be useful when asking your question if this is either done in an email or, if done face to face, send and email to confirm it will help enormously.

Please bear in mind that you should ask questions in the first instance to management. If you are unhappy with the response or need to have further advice and cannot find the answer here, ask us.

This information was last updated from a consultation meeting between UCU and Newcastle College management 25 April 2011.

A full list of reps can be found here. Please contact your nearest one. UCU Newcastle Reps

1 I have been told that displaced more senior staff than I will be competing with me for my job. Can this be done?

This is a process known as “bumping” and is potentially unlawful. Different managers have given different views as to whether this is going to happen in group consultations. It would lead to potential unfair dismissal claims.

Management asked our view on this and we said that the college should draw up ringfences of staff in each position and select on that basis. Other people who have been displaced from other jobs should be able to take up those posts only if there are later vacancies.

2 I am having to compete for my job which is largely unaltered.

We asked that there be a process for members to make representation to this effect to an independent manager. Management won’t agree to this – they say that you can make this representation when you meet your managers. If you think you are in this position please tell your rep as soon as possible.

3 What is the process to select staff for redundancy?

The union has a view that all redundancy selection criteria should be objective, transparent and non-discriminatory and whilst we won’t get into a position of deciding which of our members will lose their jobs have made this point to management. We do not accept that their process meets any of these criteria. You will be asked to complete a skills audit and then interviewed about it.

4 What have the college done to equality proof the grades for these “new” jobs and ensure equal pay for work of equal value?

Nothing. (We did ask).

5 I need advice on pensions and other financial issues. Where can I go?

The college say they are bringing in a consultancy service to provide this advice. We asked that Teachers Pensions be brought in. we have not had a reply. The TPA website is here: http://www.teacherspensions.co.uk/ also you can phone 01325 745000.

6 Can I have paid time off from work for interviews?

Whilst technically, you only get this right when you are working your notice the college have stated that you can have “reasonable” paid release for this as of now. If you have any difficulty please contact your rep immediately.

7 This is a very stressful process where can I go for help?

I am sure your reps are very empathetic but they are not trained counselors and wouldn’t wish to be seen to have this function. If you do need counselling, please, contact UCU recommend Recourse, the College and University support network Recourse who are experts in this field. Recourse have links with UCU and no connection to the College. They are a confidential service.

If you have been in a meeting at which management refused a break for either yourself or colleagues to regain their composure please tell your rep. This will be treated confidentially but we need to know.

8 Isn’t this a sham exercise and cannot something be done to stop it?

Your reps were told yesterday that after months of “consultation” the aim of which is supposed to bring possible redundancies down, that the number of possible redundancies had gone up from 124 academic staff to 158 full time equivalents (FTE). They would not tell us how many people. So you can guess our view! The problem is that any potential legal redress only comes after the redundancies have happened.

9 Are UCU meeting the management again?

We are meeting next week (wb 30 May) and will keep you informed of any outcome of that meeting.

Here are the minutes of the Health and Safety meeting held immediately prior to 12 April strike over redundancies at Newcastle College Rye Hill Campus.

Those present: Bev Robinson (chair), Hamish Hamilton, David Moir, Mike Gallagher, Craig Jordan, Sam Foreman, Tony Kirby, Greg Smith, Mike Whatmore

Apologies for absense: Jacqui Brown, David O’Toole, Patrick Hutchinson, Steve Hazel.

http://newcastlecollege.web.ucu.org.uk/files/2011/04/HS-Council-Minutes-11-04-11-2.doc

There has been a great deal of media and public interest in the salary and bonus payments of the CEO of Newcastle College Group. Before discussing this it should be said that trade unionists are, of course, in favour of good salaries and pay rises which properly reward members of staff. In addition, this branch did not release any press statement which emphasised salary payments of Newcastle College Group senior management. The college management have also been at great pains to point out that it is the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Newcastle College Group that is paid £290,000 and not the  Principal. It points out that comparisons between this salary and the salaries of other college principals are therefore invalid. This point is entirely accepted and after a quick scan of press it is clear that both of these terms have been used and seemingly interchangeably. It is not however, a matter of conjecture how much the CEO of Newcastle College is paid.  This is recorded in the publicly available Newcastle College Group Annual Report 2009/2010.

To quote:

The above emoluments include amounts payable to the highest paid senior post holder, the Chief Executive, of:  £186,984

This compares with a 0.2% wage rise awarded to teaching staff last year. The CEO has had, from bonuses alone, a pay rise of £410 a day. A member of teaching staff on £25,000 per year has had an effective pay rise of £1 PER WEEK.

If it is unfair to compare the CEO’s salary with those of college principals, let us take a fairer comparison.

The CEO of Birmingham City Council presides over an organisation which has a “Net Cost of Services” of £3 billion and employs 35,000 staff  earns £233,097.
The CEO of Newcastle College Group runs an organisation which has a turnover of £151m and employs 2729 and earns £290,000.

[1] Guardian Wednesday 10 February 2010 http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2010/feb/10/birmingham-council-job-losses [accessed 17 April 2010]
[2] Birmingham City Council Statement of Accounts 2009/2010  http://www.birmingham.gov.uk/cs/Satellite?c=Page&childpagename=SystemAdmin%2FCFPageLayout&cid=1223324977479&packedargs=website%3D4&pagename=BCC%2FCommon%2FWrapper%2FCFWrapper&rendermode=Live

On February 31st Newcastle College issued a S188. This is a statutory notice of redundancy and begins a 90 day period of consultation during which the employer must meet with the representatives of the staff (in this case UCU and Unison) for meaningful discussions. These discussions should be a serious attempt by both parties to resolve issues and the loss of jobs should be a last resort.

The College management has argued that the cuts are necessary and are as a result of the governments cuts in funding which will affect all colleges equally. The cuts which have been variously reported as £3.4m and £5.7 represent approximately 10% of current funding. This would be a persuasive argument if it were true.

• The college is part of a larger organisation Newcastle College Group which has a turnover of £151m. This group made recently £6m surplus which would seem adequate to absorb at least some of the shortfall.
• The Group has large cash and liquid reserves. Admittedly, in the accounts these are published as a snapshot and can vary from period to period but they are an indication of the financial health of the college.
• Only a week after the college announced the redundancies it callously revealed that it was building two new buildings. One is a new Sixth Form College on Rye Hill Campus. The other is a centre for sustainable technology at Wallsend.  See the New Buildings programme here. The college obviously has money enough for these ambitious plans and values buildings over staff and students.
• The College is in the advanced stages of a plan to take over Northumberland College. The College when asked what it would be spending on this project  replied “not a penny” but the rumoured spend on IT equipment alone is £200,000.
• The College says it has carried out a detailed analysis of which funding streams will be affected, but it has no idea which staff will go. The argument that a 10% cut in funding necessarily results in a 17% cut in teaching staff does not hold water when Newcastle College already has the lowest percentage teaching costs in the country.
• The governments cuts are merely an excuse to cut jobs. In fact, in the previous two years the college issued S188 notices of a similar but smaller scale. Before that it restructured constantly on a department by department basis attempting to mask the the true scale of staff turnover. During the period of this current s188 notice the college has continued to recruit staff strongly and has issued over a dozen recruitment bulletins. The staff “churn” is used to systematically reduce the cost of education and lower the quality by increasing class sizes,  replacing experienced staff with newer, less experienced ones and regrading jobs. The amount of money spent directly on education has fallen year on year. The national average for the ratio of income to money spent directly on educating young people in the FE sector stands at 65%. At Newcastle college it has now fallen to 53%. If the national average were restored this would release another £18m. This would accomodate three times the government cuts.
• The college has failed to consult properly. No meaningful dialogue has taken place. No alternatives have been considered. At the first meeting the management did not even bring a copy of the College Redundancy Policy  and refused to supply any information, saying that it was was “all in the public domain”. It did not supply monthly budgets or future projections, as it should. An account of this meeting can be found here. Union representatives were present, the conduct of management in that meeting revealed to UCU members has never been disputed.
• By the second meeting some figures had been released to UCU and Unison but there was no meaningful dialogue. No suggestions for alternatives to job losses were discussed and, in fact, the meeting consisted of a long (and rather tedious) breakdown of the very numerous income streams.
• No-one yet knows the scale of any cuts. Figures quoted are only an estimate. The s188 was issued in February, two months before the governments final estimate which was due at the beginning of April. The true figures will not be known until September when the number of enrolments is known. UCU has accused the College of “jumping the gun”. This seems to be a phrase to which college has taken great exception, yet it is true. The College has announced job losses in February for a shortfall the scale of which will not be known until September.
• The College has said that these cuts are inevitable and that all colleges are facing similar proportional losses. This was said in a meeting between Student Union representatives and a college Vice Principal. Yet Gateshead College, a similarly sized college, with similarly healthy finances, has said that it will work with staff. See here. Neither is Skelmersdale and Ormskirk (part of Newcastle College Group) making cuts. At the time this statement was made NO college in the Northern Region had announced cuts.

These jobs losses, part of a continued attack on educational standards by Newcastle College management, come at a time when we should be spending more on education and training in a region that has some of the worst young unemployment in the country. We need not to be cutting the numbers of teachers but increasing them.

Figures for percentage staff costs, surplus and financial liquidity are taken from The Skills Funding Agency College Financial Information and Guidance 2009/10.

From: Judith Aird
Sent: 11 April 2011 08:45
To: ATL
Subject: Talking to the Press

HI

Just a quick reminder that Newcastle College staff should not give any comments to the Press. Comments made in good faith can easily become twisted or misquoted with unintended consequences for the person quoted.

To avoid risk to any individuals or to the college as a whole, the College Policy is that any request for comments should be referred to Caroline Anderson, PR Manager for the College who can be reached on 0191 200 4627, and who will judge an appropriate response to give.

Please let her know urgently if you are approached by anyone.

Thanks

Judith

Judith Aird is the Director of School for the school of Access to Learning. Perhaps the college is worried that the true feelings of staff might be reported?

I do not know of any College policy which covers the circumstances under which the staff may or may not talk to journalists.
The policies can all be found here: http://ncgrp.co.uk/GuideToInformation.aspx . Managers might do well to familiarise themselves with policies before throwing out indiscriminate threats in particular The Disclosure Policy which offers protections to staff in pointing out wrongdoing.

Perhaps also the College should read this.

The General Conference of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), meeting in Paris from 21 October to 12 November 1997, at its 29th session, Conscious of the responsibility of states for the provision of education for all in fulfilment of Article 26 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948),

VI. Rights and freedoms of higher-education teaching personnel

A. Individual rights and freedoms: civil rights, academic freedom, publication rights, and the international exchange of information

25. Access to the higher education [...] without any discrimination.

26. Higher-education teaching personnel, like all other groups and individuals, should enjoy those internationally recognized civil, political, social and cultural rights applicable to all citizens. Therefore, all higher-education teaching personnel should enjoy freedom of thought, conscience, religion, expression, assembly and association as well as the right to liberty and security of the person and liberty of movement. They should not be hindered or impeded in exercising their civil rights as citizens, including the right to contribute to social change through freely expressing their opinion of state policies and of policies affecting higher education. They should not suffer any penalties simply because of the exercise of such rights. Higher-education teaching personnel should not be subject to arbitrary arrest or detention, nor to torture, nor to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment. In cases of gross violation of their rights, higher-education teaching personnel should have the right to appeal to the relevant national, regional or international bodies such as the agencies of the United Nations, and organizations representing higher-education teaching personnel should extend full support in such cases.

Reproduced here is a report to the regional Officer Iain Owens made by Newcastle College Branch Secretary, David O’Toole

On Thursday 17 March I was invited to a meeting. The meeting was to be attended by Sharon Stewart Group HR Manager, Christine Wood HR Manager and Ron Smith HR Manager. Both the Unison convenor Steve Hazel and I were asked to attend but UCU branch chair Patrick Hutchinson was not asked to attend.

I was surprised that HR Executive Mike Gallagher was not present as it is he who I usually meet. The meeting was convened with only a few hours notice and NO agenda was supplied. I presumed that the both unions would be informed of some fact in a short 15-minute meeting and so agreed to it.

On arriving, I was presented with an agenda of six or so items. These included a restructure in newly merged Business and Enterprise  and Health and Social Care involving the eventual management structure;  the selection criteria for redundancy;  terms of redundancy pay;  Salary Protection;  Support for affected employees and Meetings with regional reps. I agreed to continue with the meeting but declined to comment on the agenda items until I had been able to consult with my chair and the branch committee.

After the business of the meeting appeared to be concluded. The principal Beverly Robinson and HR Exec Mike Gallagher entered the room. I was now meeting with five senior managers.

Beverley stated the College had prepared a document (produced below) which was just to clarify some of the agreements that that UCU and Unison had with the college.

As soon as my eye fell on the document I snorted out loud and Beverly challenged me for doing so. I said that I had just read point three. Beverley was keen to go through the points in turn and not jump ahead. She read from the document and it became clear that she had NOT previously read it. It was also quite clear to me that she had been led to believe that none of the points were new and that it merely re-iterated current agreements. This is clearly not the case. I cannot understand how Beverley has been so advised. I spent the remainder of the meeting time  challenging all of the points. I will not go into each in turn for fear of boring you but just to take up point one. This union branch has never in its history asked for permission to to hold union meetings. There is no agreement, no policy or any written instruction to do so, nor is it “custom and practice”. I challenged Beverly and Mike Gallagher and all present to provide one scrap of evidence to show that this had ever been sought or that permission had ever been given. Not so much as an email was offered and the challenge still stands.

Despite asking for electronic copies of all of the documents I have not been supplied them. I wonder why?

(The emphasis is mine)

Guidelines for trade union activities
College management acknowledge the need for trade union representatives to access their members and wish to work collaboratively with employees and their representatives to enable a constructive dialogue, The following guidance is intended to facilitate this.

1. Newcastle College/West Lancashire College will continue to facilitate opportunities for trade union representatives to hold consultation meetings with their members via the use of NCG premises provided permission for such meetings is sought in writing and in advance from their respective College Principal and with as much notice as possible.
2. Meetings between trade union representatives and their members should be arranged during non-peak activity periods and must not disrupt teaching sessions.
3. If a member of staff wishes to attend a trade union convened meeting during working hours they must seek permission in advance from their line manager. As a general rule, attendance at such meetings will not be permitted if this disrupts the learner experience/takes the member of staff away from a teaching session.
4. The location of union notice boards (dedicated boards or space allocated on an existing board) should be agreed with the relevant Director of School or Service and must not be positioned in areas that can be accessed by learners or the general public.
5. The blanket distribution  of leaflets across the campus, or within individual School/Service areas, is not permitted.
6. Union reps may continue to use the College e-mail system to access their members but “all staff’ e-mails (either within the College or a specific School or Service) are not permitted.
7. When using the College e-mail system staff should adhere to the IT Acceptable Use Policy, in particular section 11.1 (Use of IT Resources) – this can be accessed on
DTC.
8. Staff and union representatives must not use the College’s reprographic resources to produce union-related materials. This includes the use of the college’s reprographics service, photocopiers located throughout the college and printers.
9. Staff and union representatives must not use the College’s e-mail, computer hardware, resources or premises to create and distribute video or other recorded materials for personal or trade union purposes.
10. No member of staff, including trade union reps, may invite the media – press onto NCG premises. All press/media enquiries should be directed to the Group PR Manager, Caroline Anderson.
11. Newcastle College will continue to grant the agreed 0.9fte remission to UCU to enable them to carry out their union duties.

17 March 2011

Newcastle College hit the headlines again yesterday when it was lampooned in the magazine Private Eye. Click on the image to see a more legible version.

UCU branch secretary, David O’Toole, met with the principal on Wednesday about the “culture of bullying” which exists at Newcastle College and the member of staff who attempted suicide through it. She offered to involve UCU branch in re-writing the Well-being Policy.

David O’Toole said: “The college has poorly written policies it is sure, but if they actually stood by what they write there would be no problem. I do not intend to involve this branch in using precious facility time on this fruitless exercise whilst there are three (at least) grievances current at Rye Hill campus for bullying.”