Over the summer, QMUCU representatives in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry (FMD) distributed a survey on the workplace issues affecting employees in the Faculty. This survey kickstarts work to find common ground to develop strong working relationships with other campus unions and medical unions to best represent UCU members and non-members in the faculty going forward.

It has historically been difficult to organise around workplace issues in FMD due to the highly varied workforce across several campuses and with different commitments and pressures, e.g., for those splitting their time between clinical commitments within the NHS, teaching, and research, and therefore employed on different salary scales, in different pension schemes, on different terms and conditions and, when unionised, across different unions. If you would like to help us organise, please reach out to us on fmd.qmucu@gmail.com. Below, you will find our summary of the survey results.

Among our respondents, we had an even divide between UCU and non-UCU members. Slightly more than half the respondents were academic members of staff, but we also received responses from postgraduate researchers, professional services staff, and from people who hold management roles.

Respondents were asked to rank a list of 8 issues in terms of what they saw as priorities to be addressed (in alphabetical order: academic freedom, bullying/harassment/intimidation, contract precarity, equality/equal treatment, lack of support, migration rights, working environment, and workload). Of those issues, ‘working environment’ was ranked as the issue of greatest priority (average ranking 2.77), followed by workload (3.52) and equality/equal treatment (3.70). FMD has rolled out hot-desking and other changes to working environments quicker than other faculties, and this survey suggests clear dissatisfaction with these so-called ‘New Ways of Working’. Meanwhile, equality and equal treatment issues resonate with issues seen across the university.

IssueAverage ranking
Working environment2.77
Workload3.52
Equality/Equal treatment3.70
Lack of support4.64
Bullying/Harassment/Intimidation4.71
Academic freedom4.84
Contract precarity4.98
Migration rights6.84
Workplace issues in the Faculty of Medicine and Dentistry, ranked by priority concern.

Respondents could also suggest additional priorities not included in the list. Here, colleagues mentioned things like unfair pay for postgraduate researchers who teach and other teaching associate/teaching fellow (TA/TF) positions, lip-service to bullying and harassment procedures, poor training support for line managers, breakdowns in communication with staff, and poor career progression pathways.

Asked what needs to be done to address some of these issues, respondents emphasised the need to address issues with hot-desking and the general lack of space to meet with colleagues; the need to advocate for greater job security and longer contracts; and adequate recognition of the true workload and time commitment required to teach, especially for TA/TFs.

Finally, from the free text comments there was a call for more union activity in the Faculty. As mentioned at the top of this post, while fragmentation, physical separation across multiple campuses, and different contracts can make it feel hard to organise in the Faculty, we also know that when we do, we all benefit. We urge members to speak to colleagues about union membership, especially postgraduate research students and researchers on short-term contracts to help us build the union. These are issues that clearly affect us all, regardless of the fragmentation, and we can only address them by coming together and highlighting that they’re structural and need intervention.

In solidarity,

Jo and Andreas (FMD reps), with big thanks to Joanna Orr (our former rep) for her work designing and helping to administer the survey

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