November 06, 2007

7th November 2007: Anti-bullying day at work, part 2: UCU has spoken...

'I faced public humiliation' - Higher and further education are failing to tackle bullying among staff, a new survey indicates

Roger Kline, Tuesday November 6, 2007 - The Guardian

Tomorrow is Ban Bullying at Work Day; a message that doesn't appear to have got through to all parts of further and higher education.

Academics at a major northern university claim that 42% feel intimidated at work, 37% feel their work is belittled and 24% feel they have been humiliated by bullying incidents.

The University and College Union survey of members at Leeds Metropolitan University (with a 41% response rate) suggests a management culture at odds with the university's goals of challenging received wisdom, encouraging students to think and promoting collaborative inquiry. Some 96% of respondents said they felt inhibited about positively criticising policies of Leeds Met and 63% reported witnessing bullying at work.

Treason

As one respondent put it: "There is an atmosphere of fear and a feeling that decisions cannot be challenged constructively - it is tantamount to treason"...

It is clear that some institutions struggle to acknowledge that bullying is a problem. At one institution, HSE findings of bullying in the vice-chancellor's own department led to the report being shelved until the vice-chancellor left. Another university can't be named because the allegations of bullying are themselves a possible source of litigation by the university...

O'Dell, in her original grievance, had the courage to capture the experience of many who have experienced bullying. She wrote: "Several other witnesses who have given statements to me are unwilling to share them with management, for fear of their continuing employment. Unfortunately, my faith in this organisation, and in this profession, is destroyed. The thought of working in this department fills me with dread. It is not just the treatment I have received, but the way management have condoned it through doing nothing."

Read the rest of the article in The Guardian. The University and Colleges Union has spoken... at last... and our pigeon holes are full of anti-bullying posters...

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Just know that the courage it takes to expose and address workplace bullying is phenomenal...

...to remain in the building and face those who you believe to be the bullies every time you go to work...

...knowing that they just want you to leave...

...but you won't...

...my university have suggested that I seek counselling... or maybe take medication...

Aphra Behn

Anonymous said...

"The behaviour of the AUT and their solicitors (Thompsons of Edinburgh) in relation to my case was abominable. It may seem counter-intuitive, but I felt considerably less stressed once I had decided to represent myself than when I had been represented by the AUT's solicitors. The solicitor who initially handled my case failed to advise me that I could have filed my initial claim under the Public Interest Disclosures Act, 1998. This failure had significant ramifications for the way the case was subsequently brought. The same solicitor failed to pass information from ACAS (the Arbitration and Conciliation Advisory Service) to me or from me to ACAS, thus prejudicing the possibility of a settlement without going to an employment tribunal. He also repeatedly failed to reply to my queries. At one point (when the University submitted a large dossier of papers) the case seemed to become too much for him and he passed it on to a junior colleague. She then sent a report to the AUT which managed to get the reason for my resignation wrong and made so many other misrepresentations that I had to send a nine page list of corrections to the AUT's legal aid committee. It was to no avail. The AUT decided to go with the solicitors misrepresentations, conveniently allowing them to avoid funding a potentially lengthy hearing.

The main thing that I learned from my correspondence with AUT officials and their solicitors was that the union subscriptions I had paid since 1986 were a complete waste of money. I urge all AUT members to think very carefully about why they are subscribing to this union and to consider cancelling their membership. I will make the correspondence available to any AUT member who is interested to consult it in London.

Should either the AUT or Thompsons Solicitors wish to contest what is on this page, I am more than prepared to answer them. If necessary, correspondence can be put up here."

posting on this blog Nov 27th 2006

Yes there are a few positive accounts of experiences with UCU - but at the moment they are too few...

Aphra Behn

Anonymous said...

Two members of staff left due to management conduct within the space of months from the same division at Glamorgan.

Anonymous said...

Julie O'Dell is a brave woman. I work there. I know.

Anonymous said...

Keep your eye on Leedsmet there should be a press release regarding the disputes there in the next few days

Anonymous said...

"The University, UCU and UNISON have agreed to work with the assistance
of ACAS to examine staff relations across the university and to develop
an improved mutual understanding of management and union aims and
concerns and make proposals to secure lasting improvements.
Simon Lee of Leeds Met, Malcolm Keight of UCU and Jon Richards from
UNISON will open the exercise while Steve Pashley of Leeds Met, Michael
MacNeil of UCU and Andy Freeman of UNISON will assist throughout the
process. No parties will be commenting to or in the media on the
progress of this work. All parties are grateful to ACAS and JNCHES for
supporting this joint initiative."

This has been emailed to all ucu members at Leeds met. Faced with a vote of no confidence and an impending report from the HSE Vice Cancellor Simon Lee has finally agreed to ACAS being brought in.

Anonymous said...

It will be interesting to see what happens- I keep my fingers crossed for my friends at Leeds Met.
I worked there until the end of last year when I finally left for another post outside of HE -not what I really wanted to do but it was either that or my sanity...! I was bullied. Not physically - but the marginalisation and isolation from within my own Faculty led me to leave after 15 years. I guess I was just friends with the wrong people, didn't support the Leeds Rhinos and, shock horror, stuck up for a junior colleague who was being persecuted by someone in authority.
Leeds Met have some bloody good staff. They have also lost some bloody good staff. I just hope that they manage to pull their fingers out and sort out the bullies before they lose all the good ones.