UCU

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Hourly-Paid Workshop

• UCU an introduction
• Your rights
• Getting improvements

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UCU an introduction

• Almost 120,000 members including academics,
  lecturers, trainers, researchers, computer staff,
  administrators and postgraduates in colleges,
  universities, prisons and adult education
• The largest post-school education union in the
  world

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UCU an introduction

• Negotiate pay and conditions locally and
  nationally
• Provide individual advice and support (backed up
  by our legal scheme)
• Campaign, negotiate and lobby for improvements
  for our members
• Anti-casualisation issues (including hourly-paid
  and fixed-term contract issues) are a priority

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UCU Aims

• Greater job security
• Equal pay (including being paid for all hours
  worked)
• Permanent pro-rata contracts
• Eliminate zero hour contracts
• Fair treatment

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Part-Time Workers (Preventionof Less Favourable
Treatment) Regulations 2002

• The right to be treated no less favourably than
  comparable full-time workers / permanent
  employees (unless such treatment is objectively
  justified).

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Fixed Term Employees (Prevention of Less
Favourable Treatment) Regulations 2002

• Employer cannot treat a fixed-term employee any
  less favourably than a comparable permanent
  employee unless such treatment can be objectively
  justified.
• The use of successive fixed-term contracts will
  be limited to four years, unless the continued
  use of a fixed-term contract is justified on
  objective grounds.

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Redundancy Avoidance

• Same legal rights (part-time or open-ended)
• Dismissals must be for a fair reason
• No unfair selection for redundancy
• There must be consultation about dismissals
  (collective and / or individual) (Lancaster case)
• The employer is under a duty to seek ways of
  avoiding redundancies
• After 2 years service there is the right to
  redundancy pay

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Employment Rights

• A written statement of terms and conditions
• Equal pay - any term that affects pay (overtime,
  holiday entitlement, travel allowance)
• Legal responsibility for your health and safety.
  Includes mental well-being eg stress
• Positive duty on employer to promote equality

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Zero Hours Contracts

• Allow variations in hours down to zero
• May not guarantee work (or income)
• Can lead to exploitation
• When there is no work the legal position in
  relation to the right to redundancy pay etc is
  unclear
• Even if redundancy pay is agreed, reduced hours
  mean reduced redundancy pay

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Employment Status

• Employee most rights
• Worker
• Self-employed?

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Legal Successes

• UCU member Sue Birch challenged her hourly rate
  of pay ( 10,000 less than a comparable full-time
  colleague) and won receiving compensation and a
  permanent full-time contract
• Lancaster Univ v UCU won fixed term contract
  redundancy consultation rights

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UCU Successes

• Northumbria Univ more than 80 hours teaching a
  year, or work more than 1 year, offered a
  fractional lecturing contract
• Coventry Adult Education branch - no variable
  hours contracts. All tutors offered fractional
  contracts with guaranteed hours
• CONEL campaign/collective grievances
• Aberdeen - Postgrad TAs campaign
• Sheffield contacting hourly-paid staff

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What Can You Do?

• Join UCU ( www.ucu.org.uk/join )
• Encourage colleagues to join / set up a network
• Contact your branch get involved
• Hourly-Paid Survival Guide www.ucu.org.uk/index.cf
  m?articleid3228
• UCU Hourly-Paid Network www.ucu.org.uk/elists