UCU: Non-core funded research staff on casualised contracts

Motion

Motion text: Conference notes:
1. The continued precarious and exploitative employment of non-core funded researchers at UK HEIs
2. The precarious employment of non-core funded researchers in UK HEIs intersects unfavourably with issues of gender, ethnicity, disability, pregnancy, and maternity/paternity so further disadvantaging the disadvantaged
Conference believes:
a. No researcher, core-funded or not, should be precariously employed if they do not wish to be so
Conference resolves:
i. To establish a working group, including members who are non-core funded research staff, focused specifically on understanding more about the plight of ‘at risk’, non-core funded researchers at UK HEIs
ii. To enable the Equality standing committees to feed into to this working group
iii. For this working group to establish a set of minimum expectations for HEIs and funding bodies employing non-core funded researchers on precarious contracts
iv. For this working group to devise a national claim framework for local UCU branch negotiations regarding precariously employed, non-core funded researchers