Essex UCU: No Confidence in Vice Chancellor and the Senior Management Team
Essex UCU overwhelmingly passed a motion of no confidence in the Vice Chancellor and Senior Management Team at an all-member meeting on Wednesday 11th March. A motion to invite our sister campus unions, UNISON and UNITE to conduct their own VONC was also passed, and Essex UCU branch intends to extend the vote to all-staff.
The Vote of No Confidence was delivered to the Vice Chancellor and the SMT on Friday 13th March.
The University of Essex Branch notes:
The University of Essex is under intense financial strain. The senior management team has responded with the decision to close the Southend campus and make 400 jobs redundant across the business whilst failing to actively engage in a fair and genuine consultation process as per ACAS best practice recommendations.
The Branch further notes:
- The decision to close the Southend-on-Sea campus was pre-determined before the collective consultation period began.
- SMT have failed to confirm which alternative options were considered and justify why those alternatives were not deemed viable.
- SMT have failed to offer justification, financially or otherwise, for the closure of the Southend campus.
- SMT refused to include the closure of the Southend campus in collective consultations with any of the campus unions.
- SMT made the pre-determined decision to relocate staff to the Colchester campus whilst aware that many staff may be unable to transfer, thereby unfairly forcing those staff to take voluntary redundancy.
- SMT have withheld financial information pertinent to negotiations with the unions and to the decisions by the staff as to whether accept voluntary redundancy or remain within the company.
- SMT have refused to consider pay caps for the Senior Management Team thereby forcing staff into compulsory redundancies, and placing the burden unfairly on the lower paid staff.
Therefore, this motion is one of no confidence in the Vice Chancellor Frances Bowen and her Senior Management Team.
This Branch resolves to:
- Inform the VC and SMT of the VONC.
- Publicise this vote to the press, the university council and lenders.
- Facilitate a VONC across UNISON and UNITE UoE branches and widen to all staff
- Evoke the VONC in future negotiations such as JNC as leverage in our demands for a halt to compulsory redundancies, the cancellation of the Southend campus closure, transparency in financial decisions and earnest consultation with unions in the shaping of the university’s future.