Solidarity walkout with UCU and other members of staff against the suspecion of research leave for next academic year. A rally and a collective organising space to connect different campaigns and struggles in the School.

Walkout against lack of transparency in the School

When: Thu 23 January 2020 13:00-15:00
Where: SOAS Steps


Facebook event: https://www.facebook.com/events/472459960299158/

Please see below statement from the SOAS UCU (Universities and Colleges Union, the union for most of our academic staff members) Executive Committee as well as SOAS' campaign Fractional For Fair Play (FFFP) on the issue of the suspension of Research Leave and its impact on the School. 

Yesterday, at our last UGM, an emergency motion was passed in which the Union resolved:

        1. To demand

                 ?a) No cuts to fractional staff

                 b) No suspension of research leave

                 c) Open the books – financial transparency

                 d) Any cuts made, must first be made at the senior managerial level.

          2. To support academic and professional members of staff in any action they decide to take against the changes SOAS management are trying to implement, such as walkouts, protests, etc.

Therefore, the SOAS Students’ Union urges students to participate in the walkout staff members are organising at 1pm this Thursday 23rd January 2020 to show our solidarity and support. The SOAS SU will close during that time, in order to encourage our students to join the walkout. 

It is essential that all students and workers show a united front against the lack of transparency in Management’s decision-making processes and join our forces to push for a better institution, the SOAS we all would like to see and be part of. We will use the walkout not only as a rally, but also as a collective organising space to explore how different campaings and struggles are connected and can support each other.

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Last week, it was announced that SOAS will be suspending research leave in 2020/21. The suspension has been justified on financial grounds, asserting a need to 'reduce salary costs'. However, no specific financial rationale nor costings have been provided. The imposition was made without prior consultation with UCU or Academic Senate. This is despite the negative impacts this suspension will have on the research profiles of individual members of staff as well as the research performance of the university as a whole.  Ahead of the 2021 REF (Research Excellence Framework) submission, this short-termist and short-sighted approach indicates a remarkable act of institutional self-sabotage.

Cost savings are being made via job and salary cuts for the most vulnerable academic staff. Fractional budgets are being slashed, meaning SOAS is deliberately targeting the most insecure teaching staff. We know this will disproportionately impact female and BAME workers, who are over-represented in casualised roles.

The frontline work fractional staff do is central to the functioning of the university. By cutting fractional budgets, an exceptionally large teaching workload will be passed onto permanent members of staff, exacerbated by the intake of students from the foundation year and ever-growing targets for student recruitment. By suspending research leave, management are effectively extending the working day with no commensurate increase in pay. This will negatively impact staff morale and generate unmanageable workloads for already overstretched staff.

The proposed redundancy of insecure staff rather than a pathway towards permanent employment represents the ultimate abuse of a casualised workforce; extending the casualisation model to the permanent workforce.

The suspension of research leave is symptomatic of the ongoing mismanagement of SOAS, where frontline staff are made to pay for the poor leadership of management. It follows the deleterious effects of the OPS restructuring and continues the opaque and callous approach to decision making at the top of the school.

We call on students and colleagues to join us in a lunchtime Walk Out at 1pm this Thursday, 23rd January on the SOAS steps.

The SOAS UCU Executive Committee  

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NO CUTS TO FRACTIONAL BUDGET! DEFEND PRECARIOUS WORKERS AND RESEARCH LEAVE! 

Fractionals For Fair Play strongly condemn SOAS Management’s sudden decision to implement major cuts to fractional budgets and revoke all research leave for permanent staff. This decision was announced with immediate effect and significantly without any consultation or warning to UCU or Academic Senate. No specific financial rationale nor costings have been provided. All academic staff whether they are on fractional or full-time contracts will be negatively impacted by these cuts.

The frontline work we as fractional staff do is central to the functioning of SOAS. These jobs are a fundamental source of income for PhD students and early career researchers, many of whom are entirely dependent on these funds given the increasing scarcity of research scholarships and funding. In an already precarious job market, fractional positions are also an unfortunate yet increasingly necessary component of an academic career, with many PhD graduates relying on these jobs while they look for permanent positions. 

Although fractional contracts are symptomatic of the broader problem of casualisation across the sector, the way to address these issues is not to unilaterally abolish such positions, effectively firing large numbers of people in the process, but to provide better protections and improve conditions for these most precarious workers. It is also essential to recognise that this overlaps with and compounds other forms of oppression: fixed-term and casual contracts are disproportionately likely to be held by women, Black and POC staff. These decisions are deeply concerning for those of us already on the margins of academia and the university.

However, as FFFP we also want to emphasise that these decisions adversely affect not only fractional workers but the entire SOAS community. For full-time and permanent staff, the cuts to research leave and the fractional budget means an increase in an already heavy workload. Permanent staff will be expected to assume the workload of the now redundant factionals, extending the working day with no commensurate increase in pay, a problem already exacerbated by the intake of students from the foundation year and ever-growing targets for student recruitment. Teaching, marking and administrative responsibilities will be overextended even further across a smaller group of people. For students, this will mean a further deterioration in the quality of education they receive, with teaching provided by woefully overstretched staff. 

A walkout against these cuts has been called for this Thursday, January 23rd at 1pm. FFFP will be walking out alongside UCU and the SU. We urge the SOAS student body and the academic and non-academic staff to throw their full weight behind this action, and to lend support in any shape or form to all future actions. We also ask that you sign this pledge  organised by FFFP and support our following demands: 

  • No cuts to fractional staff. 

  • No suspension of research leave. 

  • Any cuts made, must first be made at the senior managerial level.

  • Open the books - financial transparency.

  • Procedural transparency between management, HoDs and staff, including fractionals. 

FFFP has successfully mounted and won campaigns on behalf of the fractional staff at SOAS in the past. We will continue to fight this most recent onslaught on fractional staff, and are deeply committed to campaigning with our permanent colleagues and students on behalf of the SOAS community. 

In solidarity, 

Fractionals For Fair Play 

 


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