Progress on ground-breaking anti-casualisation at the University of Bath

Work has been progressing at the University of Bath following the ground-breaking agreement with the UCU branch on a range of anti-casualisation issues with their employer.

Since the agreement was signed the focus on the work with the university to date has been the moving research groups to open ended contracts and seeking to end the link between individual posts and individual pieces of research funding. Feedback from members has been positive, staff have reported higher levels of work satisfaction and there is a measurable saving in administration time and the initial pilots are considered a success by both the UCU branch and the employer.  The project has now moved on to its 3^rd pilot group which in contrast to the previous pilots which covered academic staff, involves academic related and professional services staff.

While the university remains committed to the approach and there has been no pushback, we are pressing management to roll out the approach beyond individual pilots as is the stated aim in the collective agreement. It is also recognised that more work needs to be undertaken to apply this approach in smaller research centres / hubs. However, the general principle is standing up and there is recognition that if research funding falls and jobs are potentially at risk, collective consultation would be triggered in the normal way.

The agreement also contains important commitments that affect a wider group of staff, and the branch continues to offer support to members who fall between (unforeseen) cracks in the agreement, including teaching-only academic staff. Organising and campaigning work continues in these areas; ensuring the agreement reaches as many staff as possible and ensuring that processes, such as redeployment, are effective in avoiding dismissals.