ULA Annual Conference 2018

 Motions

 Resolutions 

That this Annual Conference notes

• that “gender based violence” is an umbrella term used to refer to any harm against a person's will, and that results from oppressive gender relationships;

• that gender based violence takes many forms, for example: domestic and sexual violence, honour and shame based violence, sexualised behaviour in the workplace, cyber harassment and stalking, etc.;

• that most gender based violence is inflicted by men on women, and this is an expression of oppressive gender relationships.

Conferences welcomes

• the recent successes of the “me too” campaign and the bravery of the women who have spoken about their experiences of gender based violence;

• the ongoing efforts of the trade union movement to combat gender based violence.

Conference resolves to

• to reach out to other unions in the sector (the GMB, Unite, Unison, UCU and NUS) to conduct a mass survey of gender based violence in higher education;

• to use the findings of this survey in negotiations with management and to disseminate findings as appropriate, in the form of member's bulletins, articles for the media;

• that the ULA executive produce a template gender based violence policy for HE institutions.

 Carried.

That this Annual Conference congratulates the women in the #metoo campaign, for their exposure of workplace harassment faced by women.

We urge the EIS to continue to develop policies that will protect all women working in education and also female students and pupils.

 Carried.

That this Annual Conference notes

• that workload is increasingly unmanageable and unsustainable for the majority of academic staff and lecturers;

• the pressures placed on staff by a growing administrative burden, the changing expectations of students and a dizzying array of targets (NSS, REF, TEF, performance targets, module satisfaction questionnaires, etc.);

• that staff find it increasingly difficult to have a sensible work-life balance;

• the impact of increasing workload on member’s health.

Conference resolves to

• to instruct the ULA to produce campaign materials such as posters and leaflets, and materials for branch representatives to assist with negotiations at a local level (e.g. notes on evaluating workload models, reporting work based stress)

• to encourage the continued use of the ULA workload calculator as a means of collecting important information about workloads

Carried. 

That this Annual Conference notes that the EIS ULA should campaign on improving the life work balance of EIS ULA members.

 Carried.

That this Annual Conference notes that it is equitable that VP pay increases should be in line with the pay awards offered to the academic staff.

 Carried.

That this Annual Conference notes that the EIS ULA should resist any attempts by Universities to engage in the casualization of EIS ULA members.

 Carried.

That this Annual Conference notes that there is a need for academic staff to resist the digitization of their work and that staff should have own the copyright of their material unless they voluntarily surrender it.

 Carried.

That this Annual Conference notes the EIS University Lecturer’s Association represents lecturers and other academics such as researchers in the HE Sector. For a union to be as effective as possible requires as many eligible members joining as possible. This motion instructs the ULA to consider altering its name to be more inclusive of all its HE members, for example, the University Member’s Association. This will allow more University staff to associate with the EIS University Branch and is in line with the desire of EIS to recruit more members.

 Carried.