Dear Janice,
I am writing to you to formally outline UNISON's position regarding the current University of Southampton staff survey. As you will be aware, my union ran a campaign in early 2012 around long hours culture at the University of Southampton. As part of this work, you agreed at a meeting with my union colleagues that UNISON would be consulted over the questions in the survey. This commitment was minuted.
Unfortunately, this promise was not honoured. As you are aware, we did get to see the survey - but only after prompting and then only 24 hours prior to the survey being released. This meant that I was unable to circulate these questions amongst my union colleagues and receive feedback by the deadline. As a result, we were unable to respond to the survey draft collectively. This is obviously disappointing given the assurances made.
You will be aware that UNISON is a democratic union. We have had serious discussions amongst branch representatives about how best to deal with this situation. Several of my colleagues have strongly suggested that members of our union boycott the survey as a result and that as a union, we do not recognise the results. It is easy to be sympathetic towards this position.
Despite this, we shall be urging our members to take part in the survey process. Ultimately we believe that despite flaws in the consultation process - flaws that are indicative of similar attitudes towards consultation that have negatively impacted upon several recent negotiations - the survey represents a clear opportunity for our members of staff to voice their concerns.
Following the restructuring, we know that our members have strong concerns and we hope that they use this opportunity to express them. We also hope that you listen and, most crucially, act upon their feedback.
I am also hopeful that moving forward, we can work together to avoid this situation occurring again. Restructuring, new staff and new procedures in the Human Resources department are on-going; and like any period of change, as a result, processes can run less than smoothly. I am convinced that time will help to improve our working relationship as the new structure settles in and therefore the bad practice that UNISON has had to circumvent will disappear. I am also convinced that you have a commitment to improving HR/TU relations at the University and that the changes made will ultimately prove valuable and result in a better service for staff.
I thank you for your efforts to move on in good faith, and I thank you for apologising verbally and via email. As I'm sure you can imagine, many staff will be disheartened by how this consultation has been implemented and will understandably be wary that further commitments made by HR will not be honoured - or at least, not honoured in the spirit that they were agreed. Your communications with me hopefully will be reassuring to our membership.
It is our hope that in future, situations such as this will not arise. Please be aware that this letter will be circulated amongst UNISON members at the University.
Yours sincerely,
Anna Lyon
