Anonymous said:
London Met staff have been subjected to corporate bullying since the day it was formed by a (pointless) merger between London Guildhall and North London. One example of controlling just for the sake of it, is that we are not allowed to take more than 3 weeks contiguous leave during the summer period. Currently, we are almost certainly facing compulsory redundancies, but management have decided not to recognise UCU, so they will be able to get rid of anyone they like (or rather, don't like) without consultation.
The Wikipedia entry for London Met merits a visit:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/London_Metropolitan_University
You will see that there is a lot of information there about "Industrial Relations"; this was added fairly recently, and is factual and properly referenced. All this text was deleted by someone whose IP address can be traced to London Met in the Holloway Road; then it was restored, then deleted, restored and so on (click on the "history" button). It seems that someone does not want the truth published.
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Just a reminder that we need two nominations from the same Higher Education institution to award them the standard DIVESTORS OF PEOPLE...
3 comments:
The extent of corporate bullying at London Met is matched only by the incompetence of its senior management. Particularly since the University lost the high profile dispute over contracts following the merger there has followed a steady process of retrenchment by the management. Academic staff have gradually been removed from key committees which have been taken over by bureaucrats acting at the behest of their senior managers. Since the merger new modular course structures, forms of student support, systems of quality assurance have all been imposed with minimal consultation with the teaching staff who have to deliver them. This would not be so bad if what has been imposed were halfway effective. But while the new structures and processes are widely recognised (including by Heads of Department) to be at best half-baked and at worst severely destructive of good practice, the senior management of the institution remains completely out of touch with the realities of higher educational delivery, protected by the middle layer of mediocrities they have put in place to do their bidding. If the University Management could get themselves down to 50% of the criteria for the Hall of Shame, this would be a major step forward. Please consider this a formal nomination.
London Metropolitan University was formed five years ago. In that time management has enjoyed spectacular success. It has: provoked two national disputes and international academic boycotts, unlawfully dismissed 387 staff, got rid of 110 staff through voluntary redundancies, seen innumerable others leave out of disgust, put the Vice-Chancellor's pay up spectacularly, excluded staff from all participation in decisions, 'lost' several thousand students, gained a large number of fraudsters, de facto de-recognised the academic union and proposed up to 60 compulsory redundancies. Quite an achievement in such a short time!
A few more achievements to add: a deficit of at least £13m and a ruling from the CRE that the University was in breach of race relations legislation; the suppression of a vote of no confidence and the pulping of a history of London Guildhall University because it mentioned staff fears about the merger!
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