In this Bulletin:
Open Member Meeting Reminder & Link
AGM Report
Local Subscriptions 2026-27
Dispute Update: L-SL Progression
TPS
Colleague Benefits & Rewards Fair
Open Member Meeting Reminder & Link
The last Open Member Meeting of the academic year will take place on Weds 27 May, 1.00-2.00, on Teams via the link in your email.
Normally, these are informal no-agenda meetings, where members can bring any questions or concerns about what is going on in their schools and services. However, owing to the possibility that Management will close the TPS to new starters (see separate item below), this meeting will begin with a summary of Management’s proposals and the efforts we have made so far to oppose them.
AGM Report
Thank you to everyone who came to the AGM on 22 April. Over 100 members were in attendance, which is excellent.
Election of Officers 2026-27
No additional nominations had been received ahead of the meeting so the existing slate (as shown below) was put to the meeting and affirmed nem con.
Branch Committee
Aina Mir Fons [Branch Officer]
And Rosta [Branch Secretary]
Andrew Baron [Treasurer, Union Learning Rep]
Cath Sullivan [Membership Secretary, Health & Safety Rep]
Danila Datti [Green Rep]
Mike Eslea [Assistant Branch Secretary]
Tamsyn Mahoney-Steel [Vice-Chair]
Tara Styles-Lightowlers [Branch Chair, Equality Officer]
Not on Branch Committee
Douglas Martin [Health & Safety Rep]
Branch Secretary’s Report
Branch Secretary And Rosta reported that the year had been dominated by five disputes. The ones over Block/Sprints and Recording Teaching had been resolved and the one over L-SL Progression had been withdrawn after members voted to accept the compromise detailed in the last Bulletin. The long-standing dispute over Grade G is close to agreement, and we are also close to an agreement over Security of Employment, pending which Management have confirmed that there will be no redundancy threat (or demand for hours reductions) this summer.
While this is good news, there are still worries about what the new academic year will bring, particularly if Government visa restrictions reduce the number of overseas students further.
Assistant Secretary Mike Eslea moved a vote of thanks to And for his considerable efforts on all these disputes this year, and this was affirmed by the meeting with great enthusiasm.
Membership Secretary’s Report
Membership Secretary Cath Sullivan reported that our number of members seems to have stabilised at around 560, following the loss of a great many members in the VR exercises of the past two years. She asked all members to try to talk to non-member colleagues and persuade them to join, as it is extremely important for the future strength of the Branch that we keep membership numbers as high as possible.
Health & Safety Report
Cath Sullivan is also one of our H&S Reps, and she reported on their work with Management and with SHE Section this year. A big focus of that work has been stress, and we have helped to shape the new university stress management guidance and stress risk assessment. Member contributions confirmed that stress is a huge problem among academic staff, and is likely to be made worse by the introduction of block teaching.
Treasurer’s Report
Treasurer Andrew Baron reported on the Branch’s annual financial return. We have spent only £73 this year and at year-end we had £817 in the current account and £52,000 in the hardship fund. If anybody would like a copy of the accounts, please email ucu@lancashire.ac.uk
The Branch then considered the local subscription levels for next year, as detailed in the next item.
Local Subscriptions 2026-27
As in previous years, the AGM was asked to set the level of Local Subscriptions for the 26-27 academic year, and was given three choices: a high option (as we had in 2024-25), a medium option (as we have at the moment) and a low option. Unlike in previous years, when the Branch Committee made no recommendation, this year we recommended the low option, on the grounds that we have now built up a substantial hardship fund (by September we will have roughly £80,000) so there is no need to keep growing the fund at the same rate. These options were voted upon in ascending order. The low option was passed (96% in favour v 4% against) and the medium option was rejected (69% against v 31% in favour). That means that the 26-27 subs will be at the low option, as follows:
Salary £60k+ £1.50 Salary £40k+ £1.00 Salary £30k+ £0.50 Salary £22k+ £0.30 Salary £15k+ £0.20 Salary £ 5k+ £0.10 Salary below £5k, retired members & attached members (not employed by the university) £0.00.
This will add approx £6,200 to the fighting fund over the course of the year. If any members would prefer to donate a greater amount, please contact us for the account details. It is easy to set up standing orders or make bank transfers to the fund.
Dispute Update: L-SL Progression
As members will recall from the March Branch Bulletin, we had been told by Management that they hoped to implement the compromise restart of L-SL Progression in time for affected members stuck on point 38 since 2023-24 to receive their increments (plus back pay to 1 January) in their April salary. Many such members contacted us once payslips became available, to say that this has not happened. We put this to Management at our Joint Academic Consultation Committee on Wednesday, and were told that it had not proved possible for Payroll to implement the changes in time. There remains a slim possibility that an extra pay run can be made for those members, but (given that Payroll is badly short-staffed and facing several other challenges, as detailed below) it now seems likely that it will be May before the money is actually paid. If you find that this delay causes you significant hardship, please do let us know, as we may be able to request an emergency interim payment.
TPS (Part 1: Pensions for New Academic Staff)
In the last few days, Management have initiated consultation with UCU over an economically-driven Management proposal to cease to offer TPS (or USS) membership by default to new academic staff (but with no changes to pension arrangements for current academic staff). Such a change would reduce pay costs and economic uncertainty for the university but would leave those future new academic staff with pension arrangements far inferior to what TPS provides. The Branch Committee, in consultation with the UCU Regional Support Officer, have judged that calling an Extraordinary General Meeting is not warranted at this stage; but the Open Members Meeting long scheduled for 27 May (and advertised earlier in this Bulletin) will present an opportunity for members to ask questions and give thoughts at this early stage, and we propose to begin that meeting with a briefing about the Management proposal and the UCU position.
TPS (Part 2: Problems in Payroll)
You will remember from the February Branch Bulletin that we had received multiple reports from members that their TPS records wrongly showed missing service for June 2025 . We queried this with Payroll and were told that there had been a corrupt data file, and that they were correcting errors as fast as possible when notified of them. However, members report now that these corrections have not yet all been made, and that some errors have been found for months other than June. We raised this on Wednesday with Management, who said that Payroll have a huge backlog of issues to try to resolve while at the same time facing staffing shortages. They recognised that this is not an acceptable state of affairs, and pledged to find additional resources to help the beleaguered Payroll staff.
So please all do continue to check your Service History information on the TPS website https://www.teacherspensions.co.uk/public/login and email PayrollandPensions@lancashire.ac.uk if it is incorrect and you have not already reported it. To avoid adding to the pressure on the staff, please resist the temptation to send reminders etc for the moment.
Colleague Benefits & Rewards Fair
As you may have heard, People Team have organised a “Benefits & Rewards Fair” in Scholars on 7 May, 9.30-4.00, to give colleagues the chance to learn more about the services and support that is available across the University. This includes the three campus unions, UCU, Unison and Unite, who will all have stalls at the event. So do please drop in and say hello, and, if you know any non-member colleagues who might be interested in finding out more about UCU, please point them in our direction!
Lancashire UCU Branch Committee