Casualisation agreements between university and trade unions, and implementation

The request was successful.

Dear University of Sheffield,

I am writing to request, under the Freedom of Information act, information about casualisation.

Please could you provide the following:
(1) A copy of any agreements between the university and trade unions concerning casualisation, i.e. the use of fixed-term contracts, zero-hours contracts or similar contracts.
(2) The dates any such agreements were reached.
(3) Annual statistics regarding the number of staff employed on fixed-term contracts, dating from before any agreements mentioned in (1) to the present day. If no such agreements exist, then please provide annual statistics for the last five years.
(4) Annual statistics as in (3) regarding the number of staff employed on zero-hours contracts (if possible separated into postgraduate students who are also employed by the university, and other staff employed on zero-hours contracts).
(5) Minutes of meetings between the university and trade unions at which progress of implementation of the agreements mentioned in (1) were discussed.

Yours faithfully,

Francis Higgs

Freedom Of Information, University of Sheffield

Dear Francis
Thank you for your request for information from the University of
Sheffield.
We have considered your request carefully and can confirm that the
University holds the information requested. Unfortunately, we estimate
that we will not be able to provide the information requested without
exceeding the 'appropriate limit'. We therefore engage section 12 of the
Freedom of Information Act 2000:

Section 12 – Exemption where cost of compliance exceeds appropriate limit
(1) Section 1(1) does not oblige a public authority to comply with a
request for information if the authority estimates that the cost of
complying with the request would exceed the appropriate limit.

For public authorities in the UK, the appropriate limit is up to 18 hours
of work, or £450 at £25 an hour, on one request. This information is given
in the Freedom of Information (Fees and Appropriate Limit) Regulations
2004.

In relation to your request, colleagues advised that the University has
agreements between the University and trade unions concerning
casualisation dating back to around 2009. To provide the statistics
requested on the number of staff employed on fixed-term contracts and the
number of staff employed on zero-hours contracts from before the
casualisation agreements would require colleagues to run two reports 15
times (one per year per contract type). Colleagues advised that running
and reviewing these reports would take at least 15 minutes per report
which would equal over 7 hours of work on points 3 and 4. For point 5,
colleagues advised that the University has a regular negotiating meeting
with the trade unions ten times a year, and with UCU a further three
times. To provide the minutes requested, colleagues would need to review
the minutes of over 150 meetings to check if they contain relevant
information about the progress of the implementation of the casualisation
agreements, and then extract this if so. There would likely be further
material to review where separate negotiations took place regarding
specific agreements. At a conservative estimate of 6 minutes per document,
this work would take over 15 hours, due to the number of meetings and the
length of time over which we hold agreements on casualisation between the
University and the trade unions. Unfortunately, we therefore estimate that
the time needed to respond to all parts of your request would exceed the
appropriate limit.
In accordance with section 16 of the Freedom of Information Act, we are
happy to look at ways you can refine your request in order to have access
to some of the information you have requested. If you would like to look
at refining your request, please let us know. 
If you are not satisfied with the University's response to your FOI
request, please see details of our internal review process [1]here,
including details of how to contact the Information Commissioner's Office
for an independent review.
Best wishes
Elspeth
--
Elspeth Summerfield
Assistant Data Protection Officer
University Secretary's Office
The University of Sheffield
First Floor
Arts Tower
12 Bolsover Street
Sheffield
S3 7NA
Web: [2]https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/uso
On Wed, 15 Mar 2023 at 11:55, Francis Higgs <[3][FOI #960439 email]>
wrote:

Dear University of Sheffield,

I am writing to request, under the Freedom of Information act,
information about casualisation.

Please could you provide the following:
(1) A copy of any agreements between the university and trade unions
concerning casualisation, i.e. the use of fixed-term contracts,
zero-hours contracts or similar contracts.
(2) The dates any such agreements were reached.
(3) Annual statistics regarding the number of staff employed on
fixed-term contracts, dating from before any agreements mentioned in (1)
to the present day. If no such agreements exist, then please provide
annual statistics for the last five years.
(4) Annual statistics as in (3) regarding the number of staff employed
on zero-hours contracts (if possible separated into postgraduate
students who are also employed by the university, and other staff
employed on zero-hours contracts).
(5) Minutes of meetings between the university and trade unions at which
progress of implementation of the agreements mentioned in (1) were
discussed.

Yours faithfully,

Francis Higgs

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Dear Elspeth,

Thank you for your reply. I would be happy to refine my request to only include points (1)-(4), i.e. to exclude the minutes of discussions between the university and trade unions.

Yours sincerely,
Francis Higgs

Freedom Of Information, University of Sheffield

Dear Francis
Many thanks for your response and confirmation. We will now proceed with
your request as per points (1) to (4), being as follows:
"Please could you provide the following:
(1) A copy of any agreements between the university and trade unions
concerning casualisation, i.e. the use of fixed-term contracts, zero-hours
contracts or similar contracts.
(2) The dates any such agreements were reached.
(3) Annual statistics regarding the number of staff employed on fixed-term
contracts, dating from before any agreements mentioned in (1) to the
present day. If no such agreements exist, then please provide annual
statistics for the last five years.
(4) Annual statistics as in (3) regarding the number of staff employed on
zero-hours contracts (if possible separated into postgraduate students who
are also employed by the university, and other staff employed on
zero-hours contracts)."
Before we can collate the information requested, we would be grateful for
one final point of clarification. In respect of point (3), you ask for
data "dating from before any agreements mentioned in (1) to the present
day"; could you please advise how many years before any such agreements
you are seeking this data regarding? 
As we will only be able to commence collation of the information requested
above once we have received your clarification in respect of point (3), we
look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.
All the best
Bethan
--
Bethan Cook (she/her)
Data Protection Assistant 
University Secretary's Office
The University of Sheffield
First Floor
Arts Tower
12 Bolsover Street
Sheffield
S3 7NA
Email: [1][email address]
Web: [2]https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/uso
On Thu, 30 Mar 2023 at 10:20, Francis Higgs <[3][FOI #960439 email]>
wrote:

Dear Elspeth,

Thank you for your reply. I would be happy to refine my request to only
include points (1)-(4), i.e. to exclude the minutes of discussions
between the university and trade unions.

Yours sincerely,
Francis Higgs

show quoted sections

Dear Bethan,

Thanks you for your prompt reply. I am seeking data from the one academic year before such agreements were signed. So if the deal in 2009 which Elspeth referred to was in the 2009/10 academic year, then I am seeking data from the academic year 2008/09 to the present day.

Yours sincerely,

Francis Higgs

Freedom Of Information, University of Sheffield

4 Attachments

Dear Francis
Thank you for your refined request for information from the University of
Sheffield, and for the clarification received on 30 March 2023.
The University holds relevant information in relation to your request.
Colleagues have supplied this below and attached. 
(1) A copy of any agreements between the university and trade unions
concerning casualisation, i.e. the use of fixed-term contracts, zero-hours
contracts or similar contracts.
Please find attached:

• Sheffield Graduate Training Contract key principles
• Framework for the Regularisation of Atypical Workers (Hourly Paid
Teachers & Casuals)
• Regularisation of Atypical Workers: Dispute Resolution Agreement
Between the University and Campus Trade Unions
• Memorandum of Understanding re: review of atypical teacher engagement

Please note that the signatures of parties to the agreements have been
withheld with regard to section 31(1)(a) (concerned with the prevention or
detection of crime) and section 40(2) (personal data) of the Freedom of
Information Act. We judge that disclosure of signatures into the public
domain has the potential to increase the risk of individuals' signatures
being used fraudulently, although we do not wish to suggest this would be
your intention. We judge that the public interest in transparency and
accountability is sufficiently met by outlining the title and/or name of
the signatory, without the actual signature in addition to this.
(2) The dates any such agreements were reached.

• Framework for the Regularisation of Atypical Workers (Hourly Paid
Teachers & Casuals) - 23 May 2008
• Regularisation of Atypical Workers: Dispute Resolution Agreement
Between the University and Campus Trade Unions - 1 April 2011

(3) Annual statistics regarding the number of staff employed on fixed-term
contracts, dating from before any agreements mentioned in (1) to the
present day. If no such agreements exist, then please provide annual
statistics for the last five years.

(4) Annual statistics as in (3) regarding the number of staff employed on
zero-hours contracts (if possible separated into postgraduate students who
are also employed by the university, and other staff employed on
zero-hours contracts).

Annual
statistics Annual
regarding the statistics of
number of staff on Graduate
Year individual fixed-term Teaching
workers engaged contract as of Assistants
on a casual 1 September
basis per
academic year
Note - This number
is low due to a data
being previously
recorded in a
different way. This
2006/2007 651 1483 - is not considered to
be an accurate
figure of the total
casual workers
engaged, but is
provided for
reference.
2007/08 6099 1717 -
2008/09 6338 1640 -
2009/10 5782 1660 -
2010/11 5720 1690 -
2011/12 6152 1989 -
2012/13 6370 1535 -
2013/14 5851 1632 66
2014/15 5979 1825 486
2015/16 6306 1948 628
2016/17 6475 1989 827
2017/18 6526 1782 830
2018/19 6680 1743 918
2019/20 5899 1905 1093
2020/21 4620 2024 1182
2021/22 4991 1898 1089
2022/23 (up
to 31 March 4237 1697 1148
2023)

If you are not satisfied with the University's response to your FOI
request, please see details of our internal review process [1]here,
including details of how to contact the Information Commissioner's Office
for an independent review.
Best wishes
Elspeth
--
Elspeth Summerfield
Assistant Data Protection Officer
University Secretary's Office
The University of Sheffield
First Floor
Arts Tower
12 Bolsover Street
Sheffield
S3 7NA
Web: [2]https://www.sheffield.ac.uk/uso
On Thu, 30 Mar 2023 at 19:02, Francis Higgs <[3][FOI #960439 email]>
wrote:

Dear Bethan,

Thanks you for your prompt reply. I am seeking data from the one
academic year before such agreements were signed. So if the deal in 2009
which Elspeth referred to was in the 2009/10 academic year, then I am
seeking data from the academic year 2008/09 to the present day.

Yours sincerely,

Francis Higgs

show quoted sections

Dear Elspeth,

Thank you very much for your response.

Yours sincerely,

Francis Higgs