Special Meeting of UCU Scotland Congress 2021

UCU Scotland work on Covid-19

Congress notes the work undertaken by UCU Scotland (members, reps, officers, officials) during the pandemic, as set out in Covid-19 reports to Executive Committee, weekly branch information updates, monthly branch briefings, UCU Scotland guidance and priorities as developed by officers and Executive, and ongoing dialogue with reps, activists and members.    

Congress supports the priority of the union to keep students and staff safe.

Congress commends the work of local branches, reps and activists, in negotiating with employers to ensure the safest working and learning environment.      

Congress notes significant regular engagement with Scottish government on Covid-19 and recognise that UCU Scotland officers and officials do not negotiate with governments, rather make representations based on the union's democratically agreed positions.    

Congress urges UCU Scotland to continue its covid-19 work and to pressure Scottish Government to ensure the overriding principle of student and staff safety drives all interactions.   

Campaigning to change Scottish Government guidelines and for local and national agreements

Congress applauds representations to Scottish Government by UCU Scotland in defence of members' health and well-being during the COVID pandemic     

Congress believes:    

1. The return to campus and face-to-face provision must place safety of students and staff upper most in the planning of activities.     

2.  There are concerns among members on the risks of face to face working and the risks of increasing overwork if hybrid working not properly managed.     

3. The use of risk assessments involving staff and trade unions is a necessary requirement and should be key to the development of any activity.      

4. Scottish Government guidance is insufficient and has been interpreted as the maximum rather than minimum for universities' mitigations.     

Congress resolves:      

1. to demand from the Scottish Government that guidance extends further than being minimum requirements. Specifically using 2-metre social distancing and UCU guidance on ventilation.      

2.  to demand the Scottish government instruct all HE institutions to install CO2 monitors in all working areas.   

3.  to campaign and put pressure on institutions for UCU Scotland wide agreement on implementing UCU guidance on hybrid working and ventilation and maximum space occupancies based on 2m distancing.     

4. to develop and distribute campaigning materials for getting local agreements on implementing UCU guidance on hybrid working and ventilation, maximum space occupancies based on 2m distancing, and flexibility for members of staff to choose online or in-person teaching. 

Safe working conditions, collective solidarity and section 44 
     
Congress notes:     
     
1. That Coronavirus has not gone away and the importance of appropriate measures to minimise the Covid risks of face-to-face activities.  This includes wearing face coverings where required.  It is the law in Scotland, subject to exemptions, that face coverings must be worn in all indoor public spaces.   

2. The legal right not to work in an unsafe environment.     

Congress believes that Covid workplace risks are disproportionately affecting casualised and academic related and professional staff.     
     
Congress affirms our collective responsibility as trade unions to support members unnecessarily put at risk by inadequate safety measures or pressures for members with particular Covid risks or in regular contact with others with  particular Covid risks for face-to-face work.     
     
Congress instructs UCU Scotland Executive to:      

• Circulate guidance about using Section 44.1 of the Employment Act, including to walk out if there are not appropriate health and safety conditions.      
• Organise solidarity across branches in support of members refusing to work in dangerous environments.     
• Congress strongly encourages branches to take collective action, up to and including industrial action, in support of members refusing to work in dangerous environments.    
• Remind employers of their duty to prevent airborne spread and transmission of covid-19 under the Health and Safety at Work Act 1974, and of their duty to undertake suitable and sufficient Risk Assessments in conjunction with employees and Trade Union representatives.    
• Lobby government and employers for guarantees that employees in Higher Education will not be at a detriment of any kind if they refuse to work in or remove themselves from a working environment which they feel to be unsafe, for example, due to Health & Safety measures not being followed by others.