Thanks to everyone who joined us for last week’s branch meeting. Below is a summary of the key issues discussed and the current state of play across several areas affecting staff conditions at BU.

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Actions for members:

• Sign up for Academic Career Framework Consultation sessions and have your say. Remember this is the initial consultation only; more will be coming as the process progresses.
• Indicate your agreement or declination of your workload in WAMS, giving a clear rationale in the box provided.
• Document and report EDI concerns to your UCU reps, through the UCU inbox, and/or through our General Reporting Form (we aim to have an official UCU survey soon).
• Rest and enjoy your holiday!

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Workload Planning: Management Paralysis and Member Action

The Workload Planning (WLP) process remains stuck in neutral. Despite a promising reorganisation into two subcommittees—one for governance, one for policy—the most recent WLP meeting was cancelled with vague assurances of future drafts and working documents in the New Year. To date, no actual progress has been presented. Governance discussions remain abstract, and policy revisions are still at the track-changes stage.

Meanwhile, BU has failed to finalise the current year’s workloads. In the latest WLP update (1 Dec), only 38.3% of workloads have been agreed; over half remain unresolved, including a significant portion still awaiting staff responses.

We urge all members to decline workloads that are inaccurate, manipulated to “fit”, incomplete, or unrealistic. If you don’t, management will treat them as agreed. Declining workloads is the only data-driven way to argue for additional resources, especially in schools where overload is already endemic.

TLDR: if your workload is wrong, say no. Burnout helps no one. Declining a bad workload is an act of solidarity.

EDI Failures and Discrimination

Across the university, we are seeing a rise in discrimination—particularly against disabled members, but also against Global Majority members. Documented reasonable adjustments are being ignored, workloads are not adjusted appropriately, and members are afraid to disclose stress-related illness for fear of being sidelined. This is a health and safety crisis, and it is disproportionately affecting those with protected characteristics.

We are also gathering evidence of the impact of the restructuring on EDI commitments: the removal of Athena SWAN hours, inconsistent disability support, sidelining in leadership roles, and cultural barriers in promotion processes are among the reported issues.

If you are experiencing or have documentation of discrimination, please contact us. We need evidence to fight back.

Financial Update and Redundancies

We’ve now had confirmation that BU’s continuing deficit is being managed through cuts to non-pay costs. This follows months of insisting that compulsory redundancies were the only way to balance the books. While we’ve not had indications of further academic redundancies at this time, the university has not taken them off the table, and professional services staff remain in a live consultation process.

The cost to staff health, wellbeing, and operational capacity has been significant—and the Executive must be held to account for decisions that continue to compromise both.

From Members: Community, Connection, and Care

Despite all this, our recent branch meeting reflected something powerful: members are supporting each other more than ever. Whether through sharing teaching practices, resisting unrealistic demands, or just surviving, your resilience and solidarity are keeping this university afloat—often in ways BU leadership management doesn’t even recognise.

Members have told us that you have gained new friendships and support through union action and conversations, and that these conversations have helped you to recognise that you are not alone. We echo that message: you are not alone. Your colleagues and your union representatives are going through all of this with you.

Winter Message

Please rest, recover, and recharge. Your health matters. Your rights matter. And we will keep fighting, together.

Illegitimi non carborundum.

In solidarity,
BU UCU