This motion was carried 82 in favour, 1 against at GUCU branch meeting on 21.03.2022
This branch notes:
- In a Joint Negotiation & Consultation Committee (JNCC) meeting on Monday 14 March, members of the senior management team (SMT) refused to discuss any of Goldsmiths UCU’s concerns about the handling of the stage 2 individual consultation process and ongoing equalities issues related to the Recovery Programme.
- On Wednesday 16 March, the college responded to staff who have raised a grievance as a result of their treatment during the restructure and redundancy processes, to say that their grievance would not be upheld.
- On Thursday 17 March, SMT confirmed that there will be a delay in sending out dismissal notices to affected academic staff, from Friday 25 March to end of play on Wednesday 13 April.
- In recent dispute resolution meetings, SMT have tightly controlled the agenda and continually pushed back on GUCU negotiators’ efforts to raise members’ concerns.
This branch believes:
- That the only acceptable number of redundancies is zero.
- That the proposed restructure and potential downgrading of professional services roles must be opposed.
- Those staff who have been so appallingly treated by the college are owed a fair hearing of their concerns, and SMT must be held accountable for their egregious behaviour.
- The delay in dismissal notices gives us a window of time to pursue negotiations.
- That in all existing avenues of negotiation, SMT have stonewalled negotiators’ efforts to challenge their mishandling of the entire process.
This branch resolves:
- For GUCU officers to contact ACAS as soon as possible to schedule a meeting with Goldsmiths’ SMT, with the explicit purpose of preventing any redundancies going ahead on Wednesday 13 April.
- That our negotiators expect a pause to redundancies and/or a significant commitment towards zero redundancies.
- The branch will meet again before 13 April to decide whether or not sufficient progress has been made for ACAS negotiations to continue.
Proposed by GUCU executive