After many years of negotiating, UCU and the college have reached a draft agreement on the assimilation of hourly paid staff onto the single pay spine. This is currently being balloted among all Goldsmiths UCU members, with the ballot closing on the 22nd of July. Members should email their vote to goldsmithsucuballot@gmail.com. Votes will be checked by the Goldsmiths UCU Administrator and an independent Returning Officer.

This ballot is being held to decide on a negotiated agreement for the assimilation of hourly paid, fixed-term and part-time academic staff onto the principles and structures established for other staff in the Framework Agreement (2008), which made a commitment to extend its provisions to such staff on equal terms.

Since 2008 our Goldsmith UCU branch has sought to negotiate terms, a process which stalled for several years. Last year, however, the project was restarted in earnest. Negotiations over the terms of the agreement have been long and arduous but constructive. The result is a deal that has arrived late in the summer, but which is available for implementation at the start of the next academic year, depending on your decision in this ballot.

The Goldsmiths UCU Executive recommends a YES vote: the document we recommend compares very favourably with other agreements in the sector and has been agreed by the UCU National Ratification Committee. Its central provisions are:

·      Goldsmiths Framework Agreement compliant

·       Teaching roles assimilated to benchmarked Grade, with a G7 (Ac2) minimum except where they are Graduate Tutors – i.e. PhD students teaching – then they are on Grade 6 (AC1) for one year as a training grade (with training included) before being moved on to G7.

·      Incremental progression within grades consistent with full time staff.

·      Progression between grades consistent with full time staff.

·      Progression within and between grades effective from FA implementation date ie backdated to 2006.

·      All teaching (theory and practice) paid with multiplier of x2.25 for each hour of teaching contact time (including 0.1 for routine administration)

·      Monitoring/oversight of classroom activity (non teaching) paid at a multiplier of x1.8.

·      Marking time paid additionally at flat rate according to wordcount-per-minute model.

·      Additional itemised administrative tasks paid at flat rate in addition to teaching multiplier.

·      Transfer to minimum hours permanent contracts after 4 years of continuous service, with option to fractional contract where hours are in excess of 150 pa (0.1 FTE).

·      Where deal increases pay, pay is backdated to FA implementation date: ie 2006, with the calculation based on individual departmental averages.

·      Where deal reduces pay, pay protection for 12 months from point of implementation ie 2013/14.

·      Same terms and conditions of service for all staff who fall within the fixed term and part term working regulations (i.e. all staff except occasional visiting speakers)

Many of you will know that the norm in the sector is for a multiplier of x2.5, with marking and administration rolled up in that figure. The Goldsmiths teaching multiplier is at 2.25 to allow for marking and additional administration to be paid separately: a fairer recognition of variation of work. The time spent marking is calculated using a word-count-minute model, as laid down in Appendix 3 of the agreement.

The Goldsmiths multiplier 2.25 applies to all teaching, as indicated in Appendix 1 of the agreement. There is a lower multiplier for the monitoring/oversight of classes where no transfer of knowledge is involved.

There was a special meeting discussing the agreement  on 8 July. You can read the notes from that meeting here. There are also notes from earlier discussions here. If you haven’t already been sent the agreement itself, please emailgucu-admin@gold.ac.uk requesting a copy.

If you weren’t able to make the last branch meeting, in which Ben Levitas discussed the agreement, you can read the minutes at http://goldsmithsucu.org/content/general-meeting-minutes-11-jun-2013 (item 2).

If you still want to discuss the agreement before voting, our representative for Part Time and Hourly Paid Staff, Brendan Donegan, has also set up a secure online discussion forum (see below for details on how to access the forum).

To access the forum:
1. Set up a crabgrass account at https://we.riseup.net/account/signup
2. Search for the group “Goldsmiths Staff Forum” (you will find it if you search for groups and look at “Recently Added”).
3. Send a request to join.
4. Once you are added, click on “Discussions” on the left-hand side, and then select “Discussion on fractionalisation agreement”. This should make it possible for you to read what others have posted, and to post comments yourself.

If you have any questions about the forum, email Brendan at brendandonegan@hotmail.com