1. Responding to EHRC consultation
As many of you will be aware, the EHRC is running a consultation on its Code of Practice for services, public functions, and associations following the recent Supreme Court decision on the definition of ‘sex’ in the Equality Act. The University of Bristol is also consulting its employees on that, err, consultation, in order to formulate its response as an institution. We urge members to respond to both consultations. You can find the EHRC consultation here, and the UoB one here. The UoB meta-consultation ends on 16 June; the EHRC on 30 June.
Sandra Duffy, a UCU member in the Law School and co-chair of the LGBTQ+ Staff Network has written some guidance (in a personal capacity!) on responding here, and there is guidance organisation TransActual here.
A colleague in Physics has put together an open Letter to the Executive Board which members may also be interested in signing.
2. AGM, social and Jo Grady visit
Many thanks to those members who were able to join us for our Annual General Meeting, at which we discussed the current situation in the university and possible future developments locally and nationally and received members’ approval for our Branch Officers and members of Executive Committee for 2025-26, as follows:
| Role | Candidate |
| CO PRESIDENT | John McTague |
| CO PRESIDENT | Oscar Berglund |
| VICE PRESIDENT | Laura Dickinson |
| BRANCH SECRETARY | Donna MacLean |
| CASEWORK CO-ORDINATOR | Stephen D’Evelyn |
| TREASURER | Ricky Tutin |
| ANTI-CASUALISATION OFFICER | Jeffrey Pocock |
| MEMBERSHIP/RECRUITMENT OFFICER | Elspeth Van Veeren |
| PG REP | Max de Bono |
| EQUALITIES OFFICER | Afua Twum-Danso Imoh |
| EQUALITIES OFFICER | Emilie Poletto-Lawson |
| GREEN REP | VACANCY |
| Exec committee members during 2024-25 |
| 2023-26 |
| Tonia Novitz (Law) |
| Suzy Cheeke (Library Services) |
| Stephen D’Evelyn UCU) |
| Andrew James (PPN) |
| 2024-27 |
| James Thompson (History) |
| Joan Passey (Eng) |
| Neil Abel (Geographical Sciences) |
| Vacancy |
| 2025-2028 |
| Celine Petitjean (Research, Enterprise, Innovation) |
| Beverly Shirkey (Bristol Medical School, PHS) |
| James Cussens (Computer Science) |
| Kit Opie (Anth & Arch) |
At our branch social that evening, thanks to the efforts of branch secretary Donna MacLean, we were joined by UCU General Secretary Jo Grady, who gave a speech expressing support for our members in CALD who are at risk of redundancy and currently being balloted for strike action.
The General Secretary made it clear, both in the speech and in subsequent offers of time and resources to the branch, that the national UCU union was behind those members, and that standing firm in our collective rejection of the choice to make these redundancies is important not just to save the livelihoods of those colleagues but to draw a line in the sand.
3. Gentle reminder : Living and Working at UoB with a Long-Term Chronic Illness: Online Forum for UCU Members and Non-Members.
***This event is open to UCU members as well as non-members***
Building on our in-person event on May, 1st, we would like to invite colleagues to an online forum. We know not all of you, who wanted to, were able to attend and we hope this will be a better format. In order to make it available to as many of you as possible, could you please register an interest here by Friday 13th June.
We will then reach out with a doodle poll to accommodate as many colleagues as possible. If you attended in person, you are very welcome to join us online too as one important aspect of the forum is to help build a community.
This forum aims to create a safe and supportive space for colleagues to share their experiences of living and working with long-term chronic illnesses. By understanding your stories and perspectives, we hope to enhance the support provided by the University. Our role as your Union is to advocate/lobby to ensure that this support is in place/strengthened.
Register an interest here: https://forms.office.com/e/MhaFKtSHhg [link]
For any queries about the event please contact: emilie.poletto@bristol.ac.uk