The following motion was passed at the branch meeting on Wednesday March 10th
This meeting notes:
● That the University of Nottingham People and HR Committee has approved a new Graduate Teaching Assistant (GTA) model of engaging Postgraduate Researchers (PGRs) in paid independent teaching work (e.g. preparing and delivering lectures/seminars, providing contact hours with students, marking assessments).
This union branch believes:
● That all teaching work should be properly paid, and that PGRs should not be asked to volunteer for unpaid teaching work.
● That all PGRs who teach should do so on direct contracts of employment with the University, which provide the basic rights afforded to all other employees, as is the case with the GTA model.
● That the University should move away from the use of precarious, short-term “contracts for services” via UniTemps, instead moving towards more secure forms of employment for all staff, which includes use of the new GTA model.
● That any form of short, fixed-term contract used to engage PGRs in teaching work should not be used to engage other post-doctoral, full-time, or part-time members of staff, who should all be offered more secure forms of contract
Therefore, this meeting resolves:
● To call on University management to roll out the use of the new GTA contracts as a matter of urgency, replacing all previous PGR Teaching Affiliate roles engaged on a “contract for services”, whether via UniTemps or otherwise.
● To ensure that PGR Demonstrators (or any other directly supervised teaching roles occupied by PGRs) are not used for independent teaching work unless they are engaged via the new GTA contract, or a contract with equivalent terms and conditions.
● To call on University management to move all forms of work, including PGR Demonstrators and administrative roles, away from precarious UniTemps engagements and towards direct contracts of employment.
● To demand that the University end all unpaid teaching work, and to ensure that all teaching work that PGRs engage in is fairly paid.
This meeting asks the branch committee to:
● Continue to work with the Student Union to ensure that the University widely and effectively implements the new GTA model.
● Use press releases and social media to publicise this development and our related demands.
● Inform all UCU representatives at Faculty and School level about these developments and our related demands, and ask that they communicate these to their Faculty and School management until such time as they are met.