The Open University (OU) is committed to ending the casualisation of our Associate Lecturers to provide better job security and conditions. They are an integral and valued part of our OU staff community.
The OU is currently delivering complex organisational changes and working through a number of consequences as result of the global pandemic. Therefore, after careful consideration, we have taken the difficult decision to delay the date we transfer our Associate Lecturers to their new terms and conditions. We now plan to do this by August next year.
We recognise the impact this decision has had on colleagues and have set out the interim actions we will take to support them from October 2021 until the new contract is in place.
We will:
- Ensure greater job security by making no redundancies in the 2021/22 academic year. Colleagues impacted by reduced workload during this period will be offered redeployment.
- Contracts offered will be open-ended rather than fixed term.
- Introduce a payment for the interim period to recognise the financial uplift that colleagues were due to receive for their module teaching. It will be similar to what would have been received under the new terms and conditions.
- Offer to rescind any resignations from teaching modules that have been tendered in anticipation of the new terms and conditions.
We are committed to continuing to work with The University and College Union to ensure the successful delivery of this contract.
Dave Hall, The University Secretary, The Open University
24 March 2021
