皇家华人

In summary, UCL has agreed that:

• All core teaching should be online, except where this is pedagogically impossible.
• UCL has also promised 鈥榰p to鈥� an hour a week of face-to-face non-core/enhancement activity.
• UCL has also agreed that delivery of face-to-face teaching is voluntary and can only go ahead after full risk assessments have been carried out.

UCL UCU鈥檚 advice:

• Prioritise pedagogically necessary face-to-face teaching by minimising the number of other staff, students and visitors on campus.
• Request individual risk assessments before agreeing to any face-to-face teaching activity.
• It is a fundamental right of all employees to be safe at work. Allied to this right is the right to decline to engage in unsafe work, whether that work is unsafe for themselves or others.

Advice to members

If you are asked to perform work that you believe is unsafe, we set out below your rights.听

It is a fundamental right of all employees to be safe at work. Allied to this right is the right to decline to engage in unsafe work, whether that work is unsafe for themselves or others. These rights are summarised in听.听

The standard method for managing health and safety is through a risk assessment and by taking management action based on that assessment.听

听outlines the principles of risk management that employers are obliged to undertake.听

These are:

(a) avoiding risks;
(b) evaluating the risks which cannot be avoided;
(c) combating the risks at source;
(d) adapting the work to the individual, especially as regards the design of workplaces, the choice of work equipment and the choice of working and production methods, with a view, in particular, to alleviating monotonous work and work at a predetermined work-rate and to reducing their effect on health;
(e) adapting to technical progress;
(f) replacing the dangerous by the non-dangerous or the less dangerous;
(g) developing a coherent overall prevention policy which covers technology, organisation of work, working conditions, social relationships and the influence of factors relating to the working environment;
(h) giving collective protective measures priority over individual protective measures; and
(i) giving appropriate instructions to employees.

In the light of听, performing duties online rather than on-site falls under (a), (d) and (f). Note that the primary principle is that risks should be avoided if possible (a), and this consideration precedes an evaluation of unavoidable risks (i.e. a 鈥榬isk assessment鈥�, (b)).

Managing risk is primarily a collective one, especially in a pandemic. Thus, in addition to protecting staff and students from unnecessary infection risk, the call to听prioritise pedagogically necessary听face-to-face teaching is also intended to maximise the safety of staff and students carrying out these activities. Similarly, keeping lab-based or staff safe on campus necessitates a minimisation of other staff, student, and visitor numbers on site.

In addition to these collective considerations, staff are entitled to require that adequate听individual risk assessments, (d), are carried out before they agree.听

Individual risk assessments will include:听

• your personal risk of infection, disability, and death, including medical and commuting risks;听
• medical risks to others in your household arising from unavoidable contact, and to other individuals you may provide care for.听

Completing an individual risk assessment may require you to divulge sensitive medical information to UCL Workplace Health (WH, previously 鈥極ccupational Health鈥�). You are not obliged to divulge information of this kind to your immediate line manager.

In short, we would advise colleagues to take steps to protect their own personal safety, and that of their colleagues and students when approached to attend UCL campus, including where staff are asked to agree to face-to-face teaching that is not pedagogically necessary (including 鈥榚nhancement activities鈥�).听

General Meeting report

The principal debate concerned the motion in the Appendix below regarding what UCU should say about face-to-face teaching, especially teaching and engagements that affected staff believe are not educationally necessary.听

Members concluded that the risks of providing on-site teaching are substantive, and voted for the motion overwhelmingly (88% in favour).

We are seeing early evidence of a second wave of Covid-19 identified through community testing data. The sharp rise across the UK in Covid-19 infection rates is also gradually being reflected in rising hospital admissions. Deaths attributed to Covid-19 have barely begun to register, but we know the typical duration of the illness before a fatal outcome is several weeks. There is yet no evidence that current Covid-19 variants are less lethal than in March-July.听

听arguing that for Term 1, universities should 鈥渕inimize in-person teaching and learning from the start of term, except for lab- and practice-based programmes, with regular review points鈥�, as well as stating that for the first two weeks, all courses should be online-only. UCU has taken up the advice of iSAGE and has been pressing the Government over their report.

Wednesday鈥檚 announcement that 皇家华人ill conduct up to a thousand tests a day for symptomatic students and staff is very welcome. Identifying and isolating Covid-positive staff and students will undoubtedly help UCL manage infection risks on campus. But these steps are necessarily mitigations and cannot eliminate risks.听

UCL has agreed that except where this is impossible,听all core teaching should be online, but it has also told attending students that 鈥榰p to鈥� an hour a week of non-core teaching or enhancement activity will be available.听

The question is, can this be done safely and responsibly?

UCL has stated that staff delivery of face-to-face teaching is a听voluntary听activity, and one that can only go ahead provided that听full risk assessments听have been carried out. Where possible remote working should continue, with a maximum of 1 in 4 staff in offices at one time, etc. (Whereas the Government has called for staff to return to offices, UCL has not followed suit.)

On this basis the General Meeting agreed the principles outlined in the motion (see the Appendix).听. Some face-to-face teaching will be pedagogically necessary and should be prioritised, but members agreed that much of the non-core teaching and extra-curricular activity cannot be justified against the risks involved.听

A second motion to the Higher Education Sector Conference (HESC) was passed overwhelmingly. Six delegates were elected to the HESC at the meeting, with the committee empowered to co-opt two further delegates.听

UCL UCU Executive Committee

Appendix

Motion: no return to unsafe workplaces; no face-to-face teaching unless educationally necessary

UCL UCU notes:

1. The General Secretary鈥檚 call for all universities to teach online in Term 1 at least.
2. UCU鈥檚 Five Tests* for a safe return to campus.
3. Official figures record 43,000 deaths from Covid-19. Excess deaths since March 2020 are at least 60,000.
4. Government calls for a return to workplaces.
5. Independent SAGE, SAGE and WHO believe social distancing, test, track and isolate and the use of PPE are central to control pandemics.听

UCL UCU believes:

1. The General Secretary鈥檚 call on universities and colleges is correct.
2. UCU鈥檚 Five Tests have not been met.
3. The Government's call to return to offices is motivated by business concerns rather than public safety.
4. A second wave of Covid-19 infections is increasingly likely.

UCL UCU resolves:

1. To call on members to refuse to carry out face-to-face teaching and/or extra-curricular activities unless educationally necessary, and to work remotely until UCU鈥檚 tests have been met. Exceptions for face-to-face teaching and other working are where the affected staff judge it absolutely necessary and H&S reps approve arrangements, i.e. to ensure students with additional communication needs are able to participate, or for lessons which strictly require students to be present, such as surgery.
2. To call on UCU to organise a series of sector-based "No return to unsafe workplace" online meetings.

*厂别别听

听