TCM - An Update

Members of staff in CHSSC were sent the following email on Wednesday 17th:-

We are writing to correct considerable inaccuracies in the statement made by John Dobson in relation to TCM in the School of CHSSC. All the points noted below have been raised frequently in a series of meetings in relation to Phase 1 of Project Headroom; namely:
• The original business case was carefully put together. Its key point was the academic case for re-structuring; we recognised that TCM made a small surplus.
• The union’s re-calculation of the finances of the programme, incorrectly omitted some of the staffing costs and overheads; plus, that retention has been an ongoing issue, several students are part-time and several have ELQs. Our re-calculations of their figures confirmed our original finding that TCM made a small surplus.
• TCM as an undergraduate programme is no longer a sound academic fit for the School.
• The loss of income from TCM undergraduates will be replaced by recruiting students in other subject areas which are a sound academic fit for the School.
• The School and Faculty are working with TCM staff to determine whether a sound research profile can be established for TCM which would give it a place, allied to a clinical research base, in our PG portfolio. This latter option is to be developed over the next few years while the TCM undergraduate programme is still running. If successful, one post which is VS would be saved before the staff member is due to leave in 2010.
• The union has at no time given any alternative options which would achieve the £980k saving

From:
Dr Ruth Wright, Head of School CHSSC;
Professor Cynthia Pine, Executive Dean of the Faculty;
Mr Simon Attwell Director of Finance”

The following observations spring to mind:
 The authors acknowledge that TCM makes a surplus
 There is no explanation as to how the additional recruitment in other subject areas, to cover the loss of TCM income, will come about
 The potential for TCM in some postgraduate format is clearly far from a certainty, particularly since it is not known yet which School will host this. Furthermore, there is no reason to lose a viable undergraduate programme while developing the postgraduate one.
 Salford UCU has never accepted that £980K should be saved as it has consistently refuted the basis for Project Headroom, hence no alternative options to save this amount

The only conclusion is that TCM was always to be closed, regardless of UCUS efforts – “no longer a sound academic fit for the School”.

SBS Poetry Anthology Part 3

The writer of today's poem wished to remain anonymous. Nevertheless, we'd like to thank him or her for writing the poem and submitting it.

‘The Education of Oppenheimer’

By ‘anon’

Look! I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds.
This ‘World’ collapses, stripped of its most precious resources
Yet the destroyer feels no guilt.

Death stalks the corridors, the chilling touch felt by all
As ‘Fate’ decides your number is up.

Destroyer, you are a classic general.
You had loyal troops but, sat in your ivory tower,
your men became more numbers,
morale an intangible asset, lives simple figures to be balanced.

Destroyer, see your world. You have destroyed it.
Your legacy is desolation, your kingdom laid to waste.
Look, you have become Death.
You have destroyed your own world.

Traditional Chinese Medicine - Programme Closure

It is with much regret that I have to announce that, despite the hard work of many people, the University is to continue with its closure of the Traditional Chinese Medicine Programme.

Despite figures showing the programme to be profitable to the University, the Finance Department has given the following feedback:

(1) They originally based their figures on 80 students. We used 77 being the average of the last 5 years.

(2) They have come back and changed their figures to 60 students – being this year’s intake, which has been lower than for any previous year (probably the effect of centralising admissions).

(3) Further they have now decided that 15% students are ELQ (equivalent and lower qualifications), and therefore are further reducing the number of students from their original 80 to 50.

(4) As a consequence, the programme which made a small surplus on 14th October 2008 now makes a substantial loss.

(5) The programme will therefore be closed.

The Programme Leader, Mei Xing, has commented:

At this disheartened moment, what I would like to say is Thank You all for your effort to save this programme, but at the end of the day, it is a loss of the university!

SBS Poetry Anthology Pt 2

Another poem. I should shortly be able to provide a write up of Wednesday's meeting and a serious update.

I rather think that this week's poem, although short, is a call on everybody to get together and make more of a fuss about what's happening. It's by Andrew Basden who is the Professor of Human Factors and Philosophy of Information in the Informatics Research Institute of Salford Business School.


I'll have a think
To raise a stink

Before we all go
Down the sink.

SBS Poetry Anthology

Staff in SBS have been asked to write a poetry anthology for those taking redundancy, to be given to them as a memory of their time at University of Salford. That is, as a memory of their friends and colleagues here. We thought it would be nice to publish some of those poems here, so I will be trying to do that once a week over the next 3 weeks.

So here is our first poem, it's by Graham Taylor Cooke. Graham is the Programme Leader for CIPD Leadership and Management. It never fails to amaze me, that with so much expertise in management and leadership at the University it never seems to get drawn upon.

‘THE BUREAUCRATS’

Graham Taylor Cooke June 1997

(Some things never change)

They’re painting the house, they’re baking a pie,
They’re digging a hole and they don’t know why
The faceless beige people with the usual names
Plotting our course with their management games,
They write the procedures, they give us no quarter,
They’re...
The writer, the enforcer, and their blind supporters

Monitoring progress of things that don’t move,
Inflexible people in the processing groove
They’ll never falter in their quest to gain order,
And plot to discredit the ones on the border
And creative spirit is diluted with water,
By...
The writer, the enforcer, and their blind supporters

They’re bureaucratic, acrobatic people in beige,
Who jump through the hoops and work hard for their wage,
But when the great change comes, these beige bureaucrats
Will write more procedures whilst wearing two hats,
And they’ll slip unaware like lambs to the slaughter,
No more...
The writer, the enforcer, and their blind supporters

Special General Meeting

Wednesday 10th December 2008 13.00 - 14.00

Venue : Mary Seacole Lecture Theatre G 21

Agenda :

1. Collective Redundancy Consultations – progress report

2. Update on redundancies in :-

(a) CHSSC

(b) SBS

(c) ILS

3. Phase 2 redundancies

4. Questions from members

The officers will remain behind after 14.00 to answer any personal questions.

John Dobson

President

Salford UCU

UCUS Response to Project Headroom

Please visit the UCUS website to read the official UCUS response to Project Headroom.

More Pictures from the Lobby & ILS Update

Those people being made "voluntarily" redundant have now received their letters. Staff in ILS still under threat from Project "Headroom" have been invited to meetings to be informed of the next steps. None of the remaining staff want to leave, like all of those under threat, many have families and mortgages to pay, few are nearing retirement age.

Being made redundant from an IT post during a time of recession when many privatised industries are cutting back is causing stress amongst the remaining staff, and I am sure that this is also true of staff in the 2 affected Schools. We believe that the remaining staff losses could be made due to "natural wastage" ie not filling posts when staff leave and waiting for retirees to reach their retirement date, however the powers that be do not appear to want to consider this as an option.

If anyone has any information about what is happening on the ground, and how staff are feeling, in SBS and CHSSC please let us know.

In the meantime here are some more pictures from Wednesday night's lobby of the SBS Annual Lecture, showing the support from the Student Union.

Successful and well attended lobby against the redundancies during the Annual Business School Lecture to be given by Brendan Barber

Over 100 people turned out on a wet Wednesday evening to support the Lobby against Redundancies at the Allerton Building during the Business School Annual Lecture.

It was good to see both staff and students working together to defend higher education. The rally was also supported by representatives of the trade union movement including the Manchester Trades Council and the local community.

Brendan Barber, General Secretary of the Trades Union Council (TUC) addressed the rally as did local MP Ian Stewart (MP for Eccles). Brendan Barber said that he was aware of the situation at Salford and had just come from a meeting with all the Salford Unions.

Ian Stewart said that he come to attend the lecture and had only just become aware that large scale redundancies were taking place at his local University.

Both speakers pledged their supported of the Unions stand against compulsory redundancies, as did all the speakers.

Explanation of Voluntary Redundancy Letter

A number of staff who have volunteered for redundancy have been very concerned about the following statement which was included in the letter which management have handed out today, and have asked us what it means.

‘at this stage, your acceptance is only provisional.
The reason for this is that the University is unable to progress any applications at this stage because the ongoing Collective Consultation process with the Trade Unions and they have requested that we put the Voluntary Severance process on hold’

The University has a statutory duty to consult with the unions. This consultation period does not end until mid January. Unfortunately, the University decided to start implementing the redundancy programme the day after it started consultation. Unfortunately, the consultations have not proceeded easily. It has taken us weeks to get financial information from management which we thought should be readily available. As a result, our consultations have been delayed. But even more worrying, the financial information we have received from the University, together with our own calculations have given us serious concerns about the concept of Project Headroom and also its implementation. Our detailed written reply to the University will be made available to members shortly. But in short we have serious concerns that the business plans for the two Schools will leave both Schools financially weaker and will result in further redundancies next year.

Staff Meeting

A general meeting of staff and students, organised by members of staff, was held in Mary Seacole Building. Members of staff that attended were not all union members. A number of union officials from UNISON and UCU attended in order to answer staff questions as far as they possibly could.

Both staff and students were angry about the proposed redundancies, particularly in the Faculty of Health and Social Care where most of them were based.

It was felt that good courses were being targeted that were currently making money for the University. For staff there seemed to be no financial reason for this. Students were worried that their quality of education would be adversely affected, particularly if there was to be increased casualisation of staffing.

Students have not been informed about the proposals and were only finding out through rumour, unofficial channels and the Manchester Evening News.

Staff have been attempting to make alternative proposals to their management, but have no evidence that any of these have been given serious consideration. Financial data has been requested by the unions, but has not been provided by the date agreed. Many staff feel that their jobs are being cut in order to fund the Media City (UK) move.

The staff at the meeting were very angry and are proposing to stage protests about the cuts and the way that the situation is being managed.

Managing Director of Media City Quits

The following article appeared in last Thursday's Manchester Evening News.

Peel hunts a new boss for MediaCity

don frame
6/11/2008

BOSSES at MediaCityUK said today it was `business as usual', despite the shock of losing its managing director Brian Greasley.

The man brought in to oversee the setting up of the £500m complex at Salford Quays quit just a year after being appointed.

Peel Holdings, which owns the 200-acre site, said the 46-year-old entrepreneur, whom it headhunted, was `now looking forward to seeking new challenges', having done the job he was brought in to do.

The company said Mr Greasley had been brought in to create the vision for Media CityUK and establish an implementation team, `which he has successfully put in place'.

An inside source suggested that there had been a `mutual realisation' that he was perhaps not the best person to drive the project further forward.

He said: "He had vision, but there was a feeling that his relationship with big public-sector organisations, including the Salford Regeneration Company, was not close enough, and that he needed to network more with people, an aspect of the job that he appeared not to like."

He said there had been hopes that, by now, key players from the private sector might have been lured to MediaCity, where the only anchor tenant so far is the BBC.

It is understood that attempts have been made to interest big media hitters in the United States, with a view to their establishing a base at the Quays, but with little success.

Neither the Salford Regeneration Company nor the North West Development Agency, both closely involved in the project, had any comment to make on Mr Greasley's departure. The Peel statement says that Mr Greasley's strategic responsibilities will be taken temporarily by Andrew Simpson, the group managing director of Peel Holdings, supported by the team of specialists already recruited by Peel.

Mr Simpson said: "Over the last 12 months, Brian has done a first-class job in setting out the vision for MediaCityUK, and establishing a high-quality operational team. I would like to thank Brian personally for all his efforts and wish him well for the future."

He went on: "We will be seeking a replacement for Brian in due course, who will focus on the next phase of the project, as well as implementing the ongoing programme of strengthening the MediaCityUK team."

Salford Council leader John Merry, who has been closely involved in the development plans for the project, said: "I understand that Brian feels that he has taken the development as far as he can, and now wishes to move on and do something else. He has got it off the ground, and now that it is up and running, he wants other challenges."

Father of four Mr Greasley, who was born in Plymouth, outlined his hopes for the development in January, pledging to make the hi-tech Salford centre `the new Silicon Valley'.

Clarification of Phase One Voluntary Redundancies

Dear Member,

We are getting a lot of very concerned members in the three areas affected by Phase One redundancies (Business School/ILS/CHSSC) asking us what will happen to them if they do not volunteer by 10th November 2008.

Our advice is quite simple.

1. Requests for information from members in Phase 1 Areas. Members in Phase 1 who might possibly have even the remotest interest in VS should ask for their personal financial data on VS and if over 50, their pensions estimate. This request is confidential and will not result in you being placed on a redundancy list at a future date.
2. Requests for information from members in Phase 2 Areas. Members in Phase 2 (all other Schools and Departments) cannot request detailed estimates at the moment. However anybody in Phase 2 areas who thinks that they may be interested in VS and early retirement (if over 50yrs), should visit the personnel web-site (voluntary severance section). Links will enable members to carry out their own rough calculations.
3. If you want VS/early retirement, let us know because you may be able to change places with someone who is being made redundant in Phase 1.
4. 10th November deadline for volunteers from Phase One. Members in the three areas in Phase one should only put their names forward during the period 5-10th November if they want to be seriously considered for redundancy. If you do not want to be made redundant, you do not have to put your name forward. You can do yourself no possible harm by not volunteering at this stage. Should the worst happen, and your post becomes redundant, you will have other opportunities to volunteer.

John Dobson

President
Salford UCU

UCU Emergency General Meeting of all Staff Affected by Redundancies 17th October 2008

Despite the short notice and the fact that the meeting was on a Friday, the meeting was attended by over 140 people and there was standing room only.

Following a slide show outlining what had happened so far and the Union's position on the redundancies, staff were asked for any comments and questions. Note the slide show is available on the UCUS Website for those who could not attend the EGM.

All contributions from the floor were highly critical of management's proposals. Not one person spoke in favour of the 'headroom' strategy or the proposed redundancy plan. Below are some of the points raised in discussion:

1. Is it possible that staff will take severance and then there will be restaffing at a later date, given that posts are supposed to be made redundant not people the assumption is that people cannot be made redundant and then be replaced by cheaper staff?

   It has been made clear that this will not happen. The proposal is to make savings by making people redundant, not by replacing them with cheaper staff.

2. Has the University looked at other ways of saving money? Would it be possible to make savings through removing the extra layers of management created through the doubling up of Schools and Faculties?


3. It appears to staff that these cuts are intended to fund the prestigious investment in Media City UK which looks to be costing £13M. The cuts to administrative staff will add further to the workload of academic staff. There also seems to be a move towards more hourly paid staff who are cheaper. Would it be sensible to involve students in any campaign, as this will impact on their quality of education?


4. Whilst staff are worried about the proposed voluntary severance and don't want to stop this for those who want to go, they are concerned about the overworking. It is clear that people want to go because they are unhappy here, and the redundancies will only make things worse for those who stay.


5. The deadlines for VS appear to be rather short and there is concern that the timescale for Compulsory Redundancy takes place before the expiry of the 90 days' consultation that we are legally entitled to? What is happening about this?

   The Full Time Officer is coming on Monday to clarify the situtation on this and other issues relating to the redundancies.
   

6. How can there be consultation when we have been given no definite facts or figures regarding the University's financial situation and the savings required? We don't even know how much it costs to teach a student. It is impossible to challenge the cuts without this information. Other cost information people are interested in receiving includes:

- The cost of refurbishing the Old Firestation

- The growth in staff of central areas

-VC/PVC/SLT salaries

- Refurbishment of Acton Square

- Cost of ROV

-Are the redundancies being used to fund the October pay rise?

The Unions have asked for an extra 30 days on the consultation period because some financial information is not likely to be made available until mid-November, yet the timeline has not been changed for consultation on redundancies.

7. School of Languages privatisation has been put on hold for the time being. This needs to bekept in mind, as it could be used to get rid of Languages staff under TUPE to a private organisation. There is concern that privatisation is to be introduced in other areas, ie Estates and ILS.


8. How many managers are being made redundant? Many areas appear top heavy with management. In ILS one management position is not being filled and the management is making a big deal out of this particular saving. However, it is frontline staff who are taking the brunt of the cuts and therefore services across the University will be cut. There appears to be little we can do about this, management claim they are consulting us, but our opinions are being dismissed and not listened to. Decisions have already been made, this makes a mockery of any concept of consultation.


9. There is a need to ensure that the criteria for redundancy are clear.
10. Why is the VC driving this through when there is a new VC starting next year?


11. How voluntary is voluntary? Many people see it as unemployment, there are a lot of female staff affected by this who have not been in post very long and who have returned to work following breaks in service, this is a particular issue for CHSSC. Many people feel as though they sould go before they are pushed, especially in the targeted areas. There appears to be no difference between CR and VR if a post is targeted and there is only one person in that post. This is a big issue in ILS, where generic job descriptions are being used to make cuts, yet these descriptions do not really reflect what people are actually doing.


12. There should be a consultative ballot on potential action over any possible Compulsory Redundancies, a line needs to be drawn. The ballot needs to include all unions.


13. VS should be opened up to the whole University before staff are made compulsorily redundant to allow more bumping and redeployment.

Although some members wanted strong action immediately, the UCUS Committee recommended that:-

• we should strongly oppose the redundancy proposals using the consultative procedure.


• any attempt at compulsory redundancy should be fought using any means including industrial action.

When the Committee's recommendation was put the vote, it was accepted unanimously.

Questions from Staff

Here are some questions received from staff members so far that we are able to answer. If you have any questions, please email us at ucu-comms-isd@salford.ac.uk or email one of us. Our contact details are available on the main UCU Salford website.

Does the branch intend to second officers from Regional/National/another institution in order to assist us to organise against the impending redundancies? We could do with Union representation at all meetings with management to avoid –‘divide and rule’ techniques.

Members can rest assured that we are in regular contact with the full time officers in the Regional Office who are advising us at each stage, and I may say have given us some excellent advice. We did discuss the situation at Salford with the full-time officers at the Regional UCU meeting on Saturday 10th October. They wanted to attend our meetings both with management and the general meeting, but unfortunately were elsewhere.

Is there a possibility for staff to reduce their hours as an alternative to redundancy?

Job share is certainly something that UCUS could propose if this is what the members want.

There have been redundancies advertised across targeted areas that could be filled by current staff. Why were these not held back until redundancy decisions have been made to enable them to be advertised as redeployed opportunities?

Your officers have made strong representations to management about the continued advertisement and filling of posts without any attempt to see if this could be filled by an existing member of staff. Management have now introduced a 'job freeze' and a procedure for approving all future recruitment. We only wish that management had introduced this earlier.

If I ask for details of Voluntary Severance, will this mean that I will automatically be considered for VR?

Quite a number of staff have expressed concern that if they ask for details of their entitlement under the current voluntary severance arrangements and also their pension estimate (if they are over 50 years old), that they would in some sense be 'marked' for pressure to volunteer or even selected for compulsory redundancy. We have raised this concern with the management and they have assured us that all applications for information will remain confidential within the HR Department and will not be disclosed to the School or Department. A statement to this effect will be included on the information application form.

Can I be accompanied by a Union representative at any meetings with management?

Any members that want a Salford Union Officer to accompany them to any meeting with management has only to ask. If the Officers are not free, another member of the Salford Executive will accompany them. We are anticipating a lot of involvement with individual member's cases over the next 9 months.

One issue which we are expecting to do a lot of work is with individual members is in cases of what the management call 'bumping'. This is when a member who wants to accept voluntary severance but is not redundant is 'cross-matched' with another member of is facing the prospect of redundancy but doesn't want to go.

Some further points we would like to make are:

• We strongly urge members to ask management as many questions as possible during their briefing meetings. If members are reluctant to ask questions, they should get their School or Department UCU representative to ask them.

• We have agreed to work with the other Campus unions to prepare a joint union response to management, and will need to work with members in each School or Department to produce a robust reply.

Salford UCU - Emergency General Meeting - 17th October, 1PM, Chapman 3

Dear Member,

Given the circumstances of the proposed redundancies, and the timescale involved, your Officers have called an EGM for this Friday – 17^th October – starting at 1PM prompt with a planned end-time of 2PM. Note, however, the Officers will be on hand after 2PM for informal discussion. Note also that this announcement supersedes any other suggested dates/times and the venue is Chapman 3. The timing of the meeting means that the initial consultation with the trade unions on Tuesday 14^th will have taken place. Also, staff in the three affected areas will have been separately addressed by management on Wednesday 15^th (& Thursday 16^th for some in ILS).

Given the fairly short duration of 1 hour only, it is hoped that members will make every effort to attend and show their concerns at this very difficult time for us all.

To reiterate:

DATE: FRIDAY 17^TH OCTOBER

TIME: 1PM PROMPT

VENUE: CHAPMAN 3

PLEASE DO YOUR BEST TO ATTEND.

Kindest regards,

Jim Atherton, Secretary & Treasurer

University of Salford Redundancies

As you all know, the management at Salford plan to axe 150 jobs during the next 10 months (6% of the workforce) to save seven and a half million pounds. This will involve most Departments and Schools. Fortunately they have said that they will try to do it by voluntary means, but have not ruled out compulsory – indeed they have already established a Redundancy Committee.

The Committee have real reservations about the management plans.

• They talk a lot about strategy and planning, but this looks like crisis management. Indeed only two years ago, they implemented a substantial expansion of ILS (formerly ISD).
• They are still recruiting, with no obvious attempts at redeployment.
• We are very concerned about the continued waste and investment in non-essential projects.

What do you think? Email us at ucu-comms-isd@salford.ac.uk

John Dobson, President, Salford UCU