UCU president Vicky Blake @zenscara said: “It’s a horrible thing to be told, people are terrified. We are operating in the context of redundancy announcements. It makes it feel very difficult to put your head above the parapet."
theguardian.com/education/2020… 1/
One academic at a Russell Group university, who asked not to be named, said her university had dismissed her concerns about infecting her partner, who has type 1 diabetes and is therefore at an increased risk from #coronavirus. 2/
Dr Adam Hansen, senior lecturer in English at Northumbria and chair of its UCU branch, says universities’ risk assessments should take into account any clinically vulnerable people academics are living with or supporting. 3/
A young PhD student at the University of St Andrews, who does not want to be named, said. “We’ve basically been told, if you want one of these tutor groups the teaching will be in person. For me there is a dignity issue here. No one is even asking if we are OK with this.”
He makes £81.75 a week (which includes holiday pay) teaching three undergraduate seminars, putting him below the £120 a week necessary to claim statutory sick pay if he contracts the virus. 5/
At Cambridge University, the branch is concerned that with 45% of undergraduate tutorials or “supervisions” conducted by graduate students, postdoctoral students & freelancers, young casual workers will “be left to bear the costs of face-to-face teaching in a global pandemic” 6/
It says most are far too worried about their careers to risk speaking out about safety. 7/7
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