The Annual General Meeting of the Reading Association of University Teachers was held in FOLSS room 27, Whiteknights, on Wednesday 10 June 1998 at 13:00. The President and 34 members were present.
1. Apologies for absence were received from 11 members.
2. Minutes of the Annual General Meeting held on Wednesday 11 June 1997 and the General Meetings held Wednesday 12 November 1997 and on Wednesday 25 February 1998 were all approved.
3. Matters Arising - none not appearing elsewhere in the agenda.
4. Report on the AUT Summer Council, including pay review.
The President gave the following oral report. Four committee members attended the Summer Council. Stephen Nortcliff spoke on Library matters and James Anderson spoke on Financial matters. The ballot approved the pay award, but Council censured Executive for its un-clear guidance on the ballot paper. Negotiations on a merger with NATFHE are continuing, but a merger is not expected soon. Leeds AUT balloted on industrial action over the redundancy of three philosophy lecturers and action is now under way. Herriot-Watt made a statement on difficulties there. After the Summer Council Queen's University, Belfast announced 100 redundancies.
Discussion followed. The pay rise should be paid from the end of this month along with pay back dated to April 1. New pay scales have been issued at Reading and are available on the web. (See http://www.reading.ac.uk/UnivReading/vb/Finance/resinfo.html) At the Summer Council David Triesman, general secretary, reaffirmed AUT's commitment to a permanent pay review body.
5. Report on Joint AUT - University Committee.
The Vice-President gave the following oral report.
The committee met on three occasions. The Vice Chancellor regularly states that for accounting reasons the University predicts a deficit, but then makes savings over the year so that the deficit is not achieved.
Faculty groupings for promotions were considered and a paper will be submitted to Senate. External assessors for promotion to Senior Lecturer will be clearly informed of the University's criteria which are quite different from the criteria for promotion to Reader. Promotion to a professorship may consider contribution to the university, not just academic excellence as the sole criterion.
Rolling contracts for Contract Research Staff (CRS) are being introduced. We have asked for clarification on the enforceability of the waiver clauses now in use and have asked for information on the cost of removing waiver clauses from short term contracts. We asked the Vice Chancellor about his views on a pay review body, he stated his long held view that he is strongly in favor of a funded statutory pay review body.
Equal Opportunities policy has been agreed as the result of a working party. Most of the recommendations in a joint union document were accepted after discussion. The unions sought a full time Equal Opportunities officer, but accepted a part time appointment. It is agreed that the person appointed should have experience of equal opportunities work. The committee asked for guidance notes to be issued to staff, that advisors be indemnified for the risks of giving advice, and that training be given. Training is to be top-down, with the Vice Chancellor accepting to be trained first. The Vice Chancellor sits on many employment interview panels. Members of the University Council are to be offered training. There is a commitment on the University to monitor equal opportunities matters, but it falls on us all to take part in spreading good equal opportunities practice.
There were a number of meetings on the Concordat agreed between the Royal Society and the Research Councils. The University will provide appraisal, training, and careers advice for contract staff. It is recognized that this requires additional resources. It is recommended that training be provided from a central budget and that the current practice of internal charging be reduced because of the high cost of processing transfers of low value. Contract Research Staff will no longer have to pay registration fees for higher degrees.
The head of the new School of Education and the three new deputy heads are all male, despite the high proportion of female staff in the school. There is at present no forum to raise this issue, but this is the kind of issue an equal opportunities officer could address, presumably with a report to Senate.
So far as is known there are no differences between Contract Research Staff and Non-Contract-Research Fixed-Term Staff in the current proposals. One member felt that the removal of registration fees would remove an incentive for supervisors to ensure that contract research is of Ph.D. standard. One member felt from personal experience that the payment of fees is a strong disincentive and so its removal should be welcomed. One member stated that the non-payment of fees is an equal opportunities matter because other grades of staff do not pay fees. One member stated that the decision to register a student for a higher degree is taken on academic grounds and might not be appropriate for some research contracts.
Following Reading's practice committee members will normally stay in post for two years to allow experience to develop. The current committee is listed on the web along with their responsibilities. (See http://www.reading.ac.uk/AUT). All committee members have now been trained in and are dealing with personal cases. The personal case load has increased very greatly over the past year.
Nominations were received as follows.
Officers:
President, Steve Sangwine, Engineering.
Vice-President, Stephen Nortcliff, Soil Science.
Past President, David Hallam, Agriculture and Food Economics.
Honorary Secretary, James Anderson, Computer Science.
Treasurer, John Silk, Geography.
Membership Secretary - VACANT.
Committee (9 positions):
Anne Curry, History.
Ian Gordon, Geography.
Andrew Gosling, Registrar's Office.
Gerry Griffin, Chemistry.
Peter Must, Faculty of Letters and Social Sciences.
John Oversby, Science and Technology Education.
Ian Sainsbury, Main Library.
Linda Shockey, Linguistic Science.
David Stirling, Mathematics.
Co-opted (3 positions):
Peter Parsons, Computer Science.
VACANT x 2.
The nominations were proposed by Kevin Brehony, seconded by John Oversby and were passed nem com.
Mr. Ron Dobrée was approved as honorary treasurer at the increased fee of £250.
The treasurer reported an increase in national subscriptions of 6.1% and, following Reading's practice, proposed an increase of the same percentage in the local subscription. Debate followed.
A resolution was proposed by Janet Hornby and seconded by Malcolm Hamiltion to increase the local subscription in line with the pay rise (2.9%) and to put a motion to Winter Council to the effect that national increases in subscriptions should be in line with the percentage change in salary awards. The motion was carried with one abstention and none against.
The treasurer continued with the report. Non direct debit payers continue to cause a great deal of administrative work, but the proportion paying by direct debit at Reading is much higher than at many other Universities. Monthly accounts of non-direct debit payers are kept, but these accounts are not forwarded to head office monthly. It is planned to transfer investments to ethical investment funds or to buy shares in ethical companies.
Following Trades Union legislation in 1992, Summer Council accepted executive's motion to introduce a national bank account with sub-accounts for each Local Association. Shares are to be held by the trustees, with income paid to Local Association's accounts. This will involve closing our account at Lloyds and the Bristol and West Building Society. Tax will be paid nationally instead of locally as now.
It was suggested that the Friends Provident Stewardship Fund might be a suitable vehicle for ethical investments.
One member asked who would bear the additional accounting cost of moving to the new arrangements. It was thought that this expenditure should be met by headquarters not Local Associations.
One member argued that the introduction of a national bank account infringes on the self determination of local associations and that some other means might be found for complying with current legislation. This view found much sympathy, but it was felt that no practicable alternative could be found, that these arrangements are already accepted by charities which have a similar confederated structure to the AUT, and that the risk of having AUT's funds sequestered if even one Local Association failed to deliver audited accounts on time was too great to bear.
It was proposed to send an email of support to colleagues in Brazil who are striking to achieve a pay rise.