As of 7 July 2025, BU UCU remains in formal trade dispute with Bournemouth University. Below is a public summary of our concerns and communications to date. While we attempt to work constructively with the employer on key issues like workload planning and staff reductions, serious governance failures and breakdowns in process continue to undermine staff wellbeing, job security, and the university’s operations.

In this issue:

• Recent BU UCU actions
• Looking after yourself
• Available resources
• Call for BU UCU volunteers
• Summary of key outstanding issues we have flagged with BU

Call to action: Workload Planning Feedback

We have two comment boxes for WLP:

• General feedback (give us your rants!)
• Suggestions for a staff survey

What the Union Has Done to Address These Issues

From the moment this chaotic restructuring process was set in motion, BU UCU has been working relentlessly to challenge unfairness, defend staff rights, and force a measure of transparency into a system increasingly determined to operate without it. We have declared a formal trade dispute in response to the university’s breach of workload planning agreements, and we’ve made clear — in meetings, letters, and every possible forum — that unilateral changes to workload allocations, teaching contact hours, or research tariffs are unlawful under that dispute.

We’ve written formally to the Vice Chancellor and HR leadership on multiple occasions, raising urgent concerns about voluntary redundancy procedures, the treatment of staff in interim leadership roles, the handling of individual consultations, the marginalisation of disabled staff, and the university’s refusal to acknowledge clear conflicts of interest. We’ve asked for clarity, for corrections to be issued, and for vulnerable colleagues to be treated with basic decency and professionalism. In most cases, we’ve received no meaningful response.

We’ve raised procedural violations at JCNC, supported members through deeply distressing one-to-one meetings, and challenged the legitimacy of communications that misrepresent negotiations in progress. We’ve continued to demand data, consultation, and evidence on changes that affect every one of us, and we’ve insisted on a fair, co-designed, and enforceable model for workload planning, grounded in national agreements and real academic conditions.

All of this work takes time, and it’s done while your reps are themselves facing the same stress, fear, and exhaustion as the rest of the staff body. We’re here. We’re fighting. We are not giving up.

What You Can Do to Look After Yourself

Right now, the university is not looking after you, and we have to be honest about that. This means your first duty is to yourself. As the saying goes: put your own oxygen mask on before helping others. That means recognising your limits, enforcing them, and not sacrificing your wellbeing for an institution that has shown a ruthless willingness to discard loyalty, experience, and care.

Start by identifying what is actually reasonable in your workload: not what WAMS says, not what your line manager guesses, but what you know you can sustainably manage within your contractual hours. Do that. Only that. You are not obligated to absorb chaos created by executive mismanagement: their lack of planning does NOT constitute your emergency! Don’t work evenings. Don’t work weekends. Don’t answer emails out of hours. Work to contract.

If you’re being overloaded, bullied, or pressured, document it. Let us know. We can support you. If you’re being asked to do things outside of your job description, or to take on responsibilities without agreement, you have the right to say no. You’re a professional, not a resource to be mined dry.

Prioritise your health. Schedule leave and take it. Use your breaks. Step away from your screen. Talk to each other. You’re not alone in this, and pretending you’re fine helps no one, least of all you.

We’re doing everything we can to force the university to live up to its responsibilities. But in the meantime, your primary responsibility is to yourself. You are allowed to survive. You are allowed to protect your energy. You’re allowed to care for yourself first.

Available Resources

BU UCU is working to make our website more useful to members, which includes making more use of this blog, and posting on the Useful Documents page forms, templates, notes, and updates for staff to consult and use.

BU UCU Volunteers Needed!

We are in urgent need of:

• Branch Secretary
  • The Branch Secretary is central to the functioning of the branch and works closely with the Chair/s. The Branch Secretary organises, attends, and records, in writing, all General Branch Meetings and BU UCU Executive committee meetings of the branch and performs other duties as requested by the chair/s, UCU’s rules, or are decided by the committee.
• Membership and Recruitment Secretary
  • The membership/recruitment secretary will be responsible for recruitment and for keeping any membership records that are necessary at local level.
• Vice-Chair (from 31 July 2025)
  • The Vice-Chair supports the Chair in fulfilling a range of trade union duties in order to meet the responsibilities laid out the UCU branch model rules.

Other roles that can be filled:

• Campaigns Coordinator
• Casualised/PDR/Professional Support Rep
• HSS Faculty Rep
• Grade 10+ Rep
• Health and Safety (Mental Health) Rep
• JCNC Secretary
• Pensions Rep

Facilities Time will be allocated – meaning paid time off work to undertake union duties. Workload will reflect work undertaken as a union officer/representative. Please direct any questions to UCUBUoffice@bournemouth.ac.uk.

Key Issues Outstanding

1. Governance Failure in Restructuring

• VR (Voluntary Redundancy) decisions are being made opaquely, with panels denying offers to at-risk staff while granting VR to non-at-risk staff. Staff are being misled on whether further VR windows exist.
• Posts are vanishing without clarity about what constitutes a “post” vs a “role” vs a “person” — violating the legal basis for redundancy.
• Interim postholders were explicitly told they would revert to substantive posts if unsuccessful in applying for new roles. Many have now received “at risk” letters, contradicting these assurances.
• Internationalisation Leads were promised ring-fenced eligibility for new AD Global roles in outcome documents. Some have now been told they are not eligible.

2. Individual Consultation Conflicts of Interest

• HR is pressuring staff to accept line managers from the same at-risk pool as convenors for their consultation meetings.
• Members have been denied alternate personnel despite clear conflicts.

3. Workload Planning in Disarray

• No agreed WLP for 2024–25. Workloads being decided ad hoc by managers with no steer from the university, leading to bullying, inflated contact hours, and unmanaged risk.
• WLP task group has only 3 scheduled meetings before September. Staff workloads are already increasing, and managers are improvising.
• Reports of departments excluding union reps from WLP discussions.

4. Research Support Breakdown

• Research & Development Services (RDS) is being dismantled and replaced with a structure that excludes experienced staff.
• Roles created in the new structure are inaccessible to current experienced staff due to arbitrary grading.

5. Culture of Fear and Censorship

• Staff report being told not to speak to union reps.
• Reasonable adjustment hours and requests being ignored.
• Annual leave requests are not being acknowledged, adding to staff anxiety.
• Managers are threatening disciplinary procedures against members raising concerns.

6. Health and Wellbeing Crisis

• Staff are working overtime to support students, cover VR leavers, and survive the confusion.
• Bullying from management is increasing.
• Staff are cancelling annual leave to remain available for meetings.

7. Employer Communications Misleading or Incomplete

• Promises made in formal consultation documents are being contradicted in practice.
• Key concerns from UCU, UNISON, and individual staff are going unacknowledged.

We remind the university that under the terms of the Trade Dispute declared 2 April 2025, they remain bound by existing collective agreements until a negotiated resolution is achieved.

BU UCU continues to insist on:

• Meaningful negotiation
• Protection of agreed workload allocations
• Safe, transparent restructuring processes
• Respect for disability rights and staff welfare

We will continue to escalate as necessary.

If you are a member affected by these issues, contact us in confidence at UCUBU@bournemouth.ac.uk. If you are a supporter, share this widely. If you are in management: sort it out.

BU UCU Executive

7 July 2025