Cardiff UCU

November Anti-Casualisation Working Group
2023-11-15 10:00 (Europe/London)

Exec Meeting
2023-11-16 12:00, 2023-12-13 13:00, 2024-01-17 13:00, 2024-02-14 12:00, 2024-03-21 12:00, 2024-04-24 13:00
Cardiff UCU executive meeting. Please contact the relevant officer if you would like anything raised.

November General Meeting
2023-11-16 13:00 - 14:00
Open to all members.
If you have any motions you’d like to raise at the meeting please send them to the branch secretary at least 14 days before the GM.
Online Via Zoom a registration link will be sent via e-mail nearer the time.

November Equality Diversity and Inclusion Working Group
2023-11-21 12:00 - 13:00

Help us tackle precarity - Members meeting on ‘relevant factors’
2023-11-21 13:00 - 14:00
Please join a members meeting on the University’s use of ‘relevant factors’ at 1:00pm on Tuesday 21 November on Zoom.
The University uses what it calls ‘relevant factors’ to circumvent its duties around job security – see more details below. Cardiff UCU is currently negotiating with the University to end its use of this kind of casualised employment.
Our negotiations have progressed and we now wish to consult members on our way forward.
We particularly encourage less securely employed members to attend, including:

Staff employed on ‘open-ended contracts with relevant factors’
Staff employed on fixed-term contracts
Postgraduate researchers (whether teaching or not)
Staff employed on variable-hours contracts

More securely employed staff are also welcome to join the meeting and discussion, though will be asked not to vote.
What are ‘relevant factors’? What’s the problem?
UK law states that when employers employ someone for 4+ years continuously on fixed-term contracts, then any subsequent employment for that person must be open-ended or permanent.
Cardiff and most other UK universities get round this legal duty by using what they call ‘open-ended contracts with relevant factors’. The ‘relevant factors’ is a line added to the contract saying it is open-ended, but only for as long as external grant funding lasts.
These contracts are open-ended in name only. Nearly everyone employed on them considers them de facto fixed-term contracts. The use of ‘relevant factors’ is thus a pernicious way the university circumvents its obligations around job security and casualises part of its workforce. There are 470 staff at Cardiff on such contracts, 180 of whom have been working here for 10 years or more — yet still without basic protections.
What’s the current situation?
We have had six months of negotiations, which were initiated by a claim made by Cardiff UCU. The University has now proposed a way to reduce its use of ‘relevant factors’. Cardiff UCU’s negotiators are being supported by the UCU national legal team on these negotiations. We think that the University’s proposal is inadequate and wish to make a counterproposal. At this stage, it is vital we hear from our members, especially those who stand to be affected.

December Anti-Casualisation Working Group
2023-12-04 10:00

December Equality Diversity and Inclusion Working Group
2023-12-05 12:00 - 13:00

January Anti-Casualisation Working Group
2024-01-10 14:00

January Equality Diversity and Inclusion Working Group
2024-01-15 12:00 - 13:00

January General Meeting
2024-01-24 13:10 - 14:00

February Anti-Casualisation Working Group
2024-02-05 10:00

February Equality Diversity and Inclusion Working Group
2024-02-08 12:00 - 13:00

February Anti-casualisation meeting
2024-02-12 12:00 - 13:00
Meeting for the Anti-Casualisation working group. If you would like to attend please email ucu@cardiff.ac.uk for the meeting link.

February General Meeting
2024-02-22 13:05

March Anti-Casualisation Working Group
2024-03-06 10:00

October Executive committee meeting
2024-03-10 13:00
Meeting for executive committee members. Lay members can get in touch with the relevant executive committee member to raise any issues they would like to be discussed by the committee in advance of the meeting.

March Equality Diversity and Inclusion Working Group
2024-03-11 12:00 - 12:30

March Environmental Working Group Meeting
2024-03-13 15:00 - 16:00

March Workload Meeting
2024-03-20 13:00 - 14:00

April Equality Diversity and Inclusion Working Group
2024-04-09 12:00 - 13:00

April Environmental Working Group Meeting
2024-04-15 13:00 - 14:00

Annual General Meeting
2024-04-17 12:00 - 13:00
Open to all members.
The Executive Committee for the next academic year will be elected at this meeting.
If you have any motions you’d like to raise at the meeting please send them to the branch secretary at least 14 days before the AGM.
Online Via Zoom a registration link will be sent via e-mail nearer the time.

April Workload Meeting
2024-04-22 11:00 - 12:00

May Anti-Casualisation Working Group
2024-05-01 14:00

May Equality Diversity and Inclusion Working Group
2024-05-09 12:00 - 13:00
