You may already be aware that there is a proposal to close the campus post office. The post office will be conducting a six week consultation process before any final decision is taken.

Unite are opposed to this closure and are urging their members to make their views known to Sally Buchanan at: consultation@postoffice.co.uk.

All the campus unions (Unite, Unison, UCU and SUSA) and management are opposed to the closure but it we believe that a large number of individual objections may well have an impact on the final decision.

T here are leaflets available in the post office explaining the situation and what you can do or follow this link proposal to close the campus post office

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.

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.

A letter issued today by Stirling University VC in reference to the latest pay offer states that:

“The support staff union negotiators…….will recommend it to their executive committees”

This is not quite the case, in fact the support staff union negotiators position is that

“we will report the offer to our relative union committees, recognising that it’s the best that can be achieved by negotiation”

Which falls short of a recommendation.

There are also parts of the offer missing from the VCs letter, most notably the option for HEIs to defer the implementation for up to 11 months. Read the whole offer here.

The University management issued a letter to HoDs on 24th May (click ‘more’ below to read) detailing the latest staff severance ‘exercise‘. This was done without prior consultation with the campus unions who have requested urgent talks with management. Talks have now been sceduled for Wed 7th Jun. Amicus advice to members who are approached by managers is not to discuss this but inform them that their union is now dealing with this.
Read the rest of this entry »

Following a meeting between our regional officer, Gordon Casey, Amicus representative Jim Fleming and University management on 3rd Aug 2005 regarding the proposed ballot of residential porters on the new rotas the follow should be noted:
There are currently 3 proposed rotas, a 12 hour and an 8 hour proposed by management and an 8 hour proposed by staff members.

• Management have removed the staff proposed rota following a request from Unison, therefore only 2 management rotas will be on the ballot.
• Amicus have suggested a general meeting with all residential porters, management and union representatives present, this was rejected by management.
• Management confirmed that their proposed 8 hour rota will still result in 6 “undesirable posts” of continuous back shift.
• The University is preparing for a legal challenge for recognition of Amicus to represent the residential porters.

Amicus recommendations to members:

• Write NONE OF THE ABOVE at the bottom the ballot paper DO NOT tick any of the other options.
• Photocopy your ballot paper before you send it in and give this to your Amicus rep (either Jim Fleming or George MacLeod).
• If you notice anything on the ballot paper which ‘could’ be used to identify you, either remove it or obscure it in some way.

I will be seeking clarification from the director of HR on how the ballot and counting will be conducted. There will be a meeting of residential porters on Tue 16th Aug 2005 (place and time tbc) For frther information please contact George MacLeod

The next Amicus committee meeting will take place on Wed 2nd March in room 4B33 Cottrell building. The meeting will be attended by Gordon Casey (regional officer).

The next meeting of the UoS Amicus committee will be on Wed 2nd March. Prior to the meeting members will elect representatives in their area to sit on the committee. Office bearers will also be elected at the meeting. Gordon Casey will also bring an up to date list of members.

With the recent influx of new members to Amicus at the University of Stirling our numbers have risen from around 60 members to well over 90. With this in mind it has been proposed to for a new union committee for Amicus at Stirling. The first meeting of the new committee will be held at 10:30 on 2nd Feb 2005 in Pathfoot building Room L20. For the purposes of getting the committee off the ground the initial members proposed are Jim Fleming (Accomodation), Mike McCarroll (E&CS), Walter Menzies (E&CS), Derek Macaloney (E&CS), Joan Barnett (PSY), Bill Jamieson (SBES) and George MacLeod (SBES). At a suitable time in the near future we will have proper elections. At 11:00 following this initial meeting Gordon Casey (Regional Officer) will give a presentation to all Technical staff (others are of course welcome but space is limited) on the implementation of the Framework Agreement and it’s implications. Gordon has already made similar presentations on campus to other groups.

Due to the recent rise in Amicus membership at Stirling it has been agreed with Gordon Casey, the regional officer that an Amicus committee will be formed at Stirling with representation from all the sectors in the University with Amicus members. The first meeting is scheduled for Wed 2nd Feb at 10:30 venue to be confirmed. It is also our intention that directly after this meeting Gordon will give a presentation to the technical staff on the framework agreement, although this will be open to all members who wish to attend.