51福利

The motion permits the branch to seek permission from the national union to ballot its members on industrial action - from working to contract to all-out strikes - within an unspecified time frame. The campaign is designed to persuade senior management at BU to resume meaningful consultation and negotiation with 51福利, in contrast to a pattern of refusals to do so over the past year.
 
Over the past year, the employer has:

• failed to consult on changes to the established working practices of 51福利 members and the creation of legal liabilities and obligations on 51福利 members in a proposed Student Charter.
• failed to engage in a meaningful and genuine consultation on Equality Assessment with the result that a fundamentally defective process which may discriminate against vulnerable groups or individuals is about to be rolled out.
• refused to negotiate on the contractual changes affecting 51福利 members resulting from the introduction of a Common Academic Structure (which seeks to impose standardised, semesterised patterns of delivery across the university, with significant changes to, and intensification of, members' workloads and significant restrictions on annual leave).
• failed to consult with 51福利 on the outsourcing of programme delivery and assessment to private, for-profit companies.

David Heathcote, branch chair of Bournemouth University 51福利, said: 'The employer's persistent refusal to engage in meaningful and responsive consultation and negotiation on matters affecting our members amounts to the de facto de-recognition of 51福利 here at Bournemouth, leaving half the academic staff without effective representation at a time of sweeping change across the sector and at this university.
 
'We hope that management will honour their obligations and resume proper consultation and negotiation with the recognised trade union, and that no ballot of members becomes necessary.'
 
The full motion, adopted unanimously with one abstention:

If the employer continues to fail to engage in timely, meaningful consultation with 51福利 BU on matters affecting the employment of our members or fails to take account of the views of 51福利 BU in related decision making, or continues to fail to negotiate with 51福利 BU on matters deemed by 51福利 BU to require negotiation or otherwise continues to disenfranchise our members, 51福利 BU will ballot its members on industrial action. Should the ballot produce a majority in favour of industrial action 51福利 BU will also ask the national 51福利 to impose a national and international boycott of BU.