OPEN TOWN HALL MEETING – EASE/MARCOMMS RESTRUCTURING – NEXT STEPS: Weds Oct 8, 13.00-14.00
As you may be aware, the Academic Board (AB) voted overwhelmingly to pause the EASE/MarComms restructuring on the 16th September, and for the University Management Committee (UMC) to bring back a formal explanation of how the restructuring does not breach governance requirements.
Only UCL governance bodies (Council, after receiving the advice of AB) can change UCL’s academic governance terms – such as who sets priorities for admin support for departments, so it seems UMC have acted outside of their authority (ultra vires) in imposing this damaging restructure. The AB vote in favour of each motion was 67% and 68% respectively, when there were over 330 people present at the meeting.
But UMC, despite saying they were listening to AB, have continued the restructuring apace. It is time to take further action to prevent further damage being done to our departments’ administrative support.
What to expect when the restructuring comes to your department/faculty: Colleagues in most departments that have undergone EASE/MarComms restructuring are reporting that it is damaging to departmental processes and aims.
For example, a senior colleague at the Bartlett reports: “hardly an hour goes by without another email detailing another service or budget cut, the latter often relating to ‘marcomms’ now we’ve lost comms autonomy” (see testimonial below)
At the same time, Professional Services colleagues at the sharp end of the restructuring are facing degrading (moving from G7 to G6 work) en masse, and the redefinition of their jobs in a version of fire and rehire. They are threatened with redundancy if they do not accept the new vague job descriptions and less favourable terms of service into which they are being pushed.
Please come to this meeting – if your department/faculty has not yet faced the EASE/MarComms restructuring grinder, it will come to you soon and it will be just as damaging.
To understand more about what the problems are, see our short summary of the issues on our website and the AB requisition letter with the motions that were passed at the last AB meeting. It is crucial that all our members are actively opposing this damage to UCL structures and PS staff positions and working conditions. Please take action and sign this petition calling for a pause of existing processes and a moratorium on any new ones.
See you on the 8th October – please spread the word to all colleagues. Email ucu@ucl.ac.uk for a zoom link if you are a staff member.
UCL UCU Executive Cttee
Detailed testimonial from senior colleague at Bartlett:
“The programme seems to be advancing at pace, with immediate implications for local resourcing. Within faculties, different departments are in different financial positions owing to emerging student numbers. EASE, and the sharing of services, is making it a lot easier for the university to cut service provision – including to those departments that have hugely overshot their targets. My own department has overshot UG and PGT, but hardly an hour goes by without another email detailing another service or budget cut, the latter often relating to ‘marcomms’ now we’ve lost comms autonomy.”
