The latest round in the 2009/2010 pay claim took place yesterday but unfortunately the employers (UCEA) failed to make an offer. Read Mike Robinson’s (National Officer) letter.

UCU (the Academic union) were also at this meeting having recently agreed to sign up to the new JNCHES agreement.

The other unions presented their joint pay claim which did not include UCU due to their late agreement to join JNCHES. UCU have presented their own seperate pay claim.

The Dearing & Bett reports of the late 90′s identified a complete lack of staff training and development and with it career prospects within HE. These reports in part led to the Framework Agreement and required that all HEIs should implement a programme of staff development, providing training & resources. This is also part of the Framework Agreement:-

• Access to training and development is important both for the motivation of staff and to enhance their contribution to the institution. HE institutions will make available suitable training and development opportunities to all staff, irrespective of their present grades or career pathways.
• Institutions will operate regular development reviews for all staff – with a view to facilitating both the improvement of performance to meet institutional objectives and career development for individuals – and will offer suitable development opportunities in the light of these.
• JNCHES will develop further guidance on staff development and review, including advice on facilitating new career pathways and recognising new ways of delivering and supporting teaching and learning.

The University of Stirling has established a project to develop appraisal arrangements. All staff are invited to contribute thoughts and suggestions. Please go to the Portal page to see dates and times for various discussion forums. It’s vitally important for staff to have an input into this process to ensure we end up with a meaningful and workable system. If you cannot attend any of the forums you can of course submit ideas via email.

Some members of staff have already made requests for information under either the Data Protection (DPA) or Freedom of Information (FIA) Acts. The following is information that may be useful to members.

• The DPA via a Subject Access Request can be used to access information an employer holds about you. Here is a draft letter you may want to use, the employer can charge a fee of up to £10.
• Under the FIA any member of the public may request information held by public authorities, which include colleges and universities.Absolute exemptions include personal data about the applicant (because they have a right of access under the DPA).
• If you believe there has been any sexual discrimination you may wish to consider the SD74 Questionnaire

Therefore, if you intend to ask the University for information regarding yourself the DPA and a Subject Access Request is the correct method.

Please read this document which details the next stage of the Framework Agreement Reviews and Ongoing Role Analysis

All staff who were re-graded to grades 6 – 10 will have been sent a letter (dated 22nd June) and information pack informing them that as of the 1st June they were automatically enrolled in the USS pension scheme, and if they wanted to opt-out they had to do so in writing by 28th June.

This was in fact incorrect and the error has been brought to the attention of management, who have advised me that they have now reversed this decision.

This means that all staff who are now eligible to join the USS scheme as a result of re-grading will not automatically be enrolled in USS and will be given a reasonable time period (yet to be decided, but probably no less than 3 months) in which to choose whether they wish to join USS or remain in the University scheme.

Any USS deductions made in the June payroll will be reimbursed in the July payroll. Also, any member of staff who decides at this stage that they do want to transfer to USS please contact Anne Anderson as soon as possible.

Dear Members,

The Amicus Framework Agreement ballot has produced the following results:

• Total ballot returns: 97%
• Total Yes votes of returns : 81.8%
• Total No votes of returns : 18.2%

Therefore I can confirm the overall result of the Amicus ballot is to accept the proposed new pay and grading structure and associated terms an conditions.

Additional: Unison have just returned their ballot results as 83.72% Yes & 16.28% NO

UCU result 94% Yes 6% No

Amicus ballot papers are being sent out this week to all listed members at the University of Stirling. You are being asked to vote on whether or not to accept the proposed pay and grading structure and the associated terms and conditions. Please ensure all ballot papers are returned by Friday the 18th May at 17:00

If for any reason you do not receive your ballot paper please contact me as soon as possible and I will issue a ballot paper on production of your membership card.

We had intended to have another general meeting before the ballot but time constraints and our regional officer out canvassing for the election make this impossible.

It is hoped that both Unison and UCU will also ballot fairly soon and, provided we have a majority in favour we will implement on 1st June 2007.

Having reviewed the current pay and grading proposals at Stirling the Amicus Lawyers have notified me that we can now proceed to a ballot of members.

It is my intention to hold a couple of meetings with members to present the current proposals and answer any questions I can prior to holding the ballot.

As soon as I can arrange a suitable venue for the meetings I will inform members.

Please ensure any members without access to email or the web are notified of this letter.

Letter to Staff from Martin McCrindle, Director of Human Resources

Staff may recall that we had hoped to be able to communicate the detail of, and implement, our new pay and grading structure in March. Having concluded local negotiations, our Stirling Amicus and Unison Union colleagues are following a process of consultation and clarification with their national offices prior to a local ballot being authorised. It will not, however, now be possible to ballot in time to meet a March implementation deadline. Read the rest of this entry »

We are approaching the point where staff will be notified of their new grade on the single spine pay and grading structure. Some staff will be regraded higher than their current grade (green circled). please read this letter from Mike Robinson National Officer for Higher Education.