The following motions were passed in our EGM on 12 March 2024 and have been submitted for debate at Congress and HE Sector Conference 2024 which will take place 29 – 31 May at Bournemouth International Conference Centre. CUCU members, if you are interested in standing as a delegate to Congress and Sector Conference, please get in touch with the branch admin@ucu.cam.ac.uk. Read more about Congress here: https://www.ucu.org.uk/Congress24
Congress Motion – Motion on non-compliance with new anti-strike laws
Congress notes:
That the TUC has called on the entire trade union movement to observe a policy of non-compliance with the new anti-strike laws (Strikes (Minimum Service Levels) Act).
Congress believes:
That the attack on the right to strike is part of a wider offensive on our democratic rights to protest and organise and that the trade unions must mobilise to protect our rights through campaigns of strikes, protests and civil disobedience.
Congress resolves:
To instruct branches via the GS not to comply with any “work notice” issued by employers under the Act by:
- not supplying any information on members who would be required to work in order to implement a “minimum service level” during strike action;
- calling on all balloted members to strike and respect picket lines;
- escalating to national strike action to defend branches or members facing legal action as a result of non-compliance.
HESC Motion – Motion for Ending Age Discrimination and Forced Retirement (EJRA) in UK HE
UCU notes that
- UCU supports the established legal position of there being no default retirement age
- UCU opposes unlawful discrimination
- The EJRA (Employer Justified Retirement Age) was introduced to aspire to improve diversity
- Objectively, in Oxford and Cambridge, those aspirations have failed, with no concrete data or verifiable statistics shared to confirm otherwise,
- The EJRA policy at Oxford was found by Employment Tribunal (March 2023) not to be a justified means of achieving a legitimate aim, and thus unlawful
- 120 Cambridge professors signed a letter to the Vice-Chancellor in November 2023, emphasising their belief that the EJRA is immoral, illegal, unfair, uneconomic, and bad employment practice’
UCU believes that
- Age discrimination is harmful, personally and communally, as is all other unlawful discrimination
UCU resolves to
- Lobby and organise for an end to the unfair discrimination and lasting, damaging effects of EJRA