The Annex is Not Optional
LSE SENIOR MANAGERS MUST STOP VIOLATING THEIR PROMISE
WHAT’S HAPPENING?
LSE managers claim an ‘informal verbal agreement’ with unions from the early 2000s justifies their ignoring employment protections in the Academic Annex when dismissing staff. This claim was rejected by Academic Board members and UCU, so they promised to stop.
🚨UCU has now learned that LSE senior managers are violating their promise and still dismiss staff on the basis of this fake ‘agreement’. This is unacceptable.
- No written record of an ‘informal verbal agreement’ was ever produced, and now there is a written agreement that they must stop using it to justify ignoring the Annex.
- Redundancy procedures cannot be overridden by any informal agreement: they form part of our contracts and are enshrined by the LSE Articles of Association.
- Yet recently they expanded this claim, falsely suggesting that UCU agreed to Annex protections only being applied when closing entire units, which would mean all affected staff, including New Academic Career (NAC) staff, could be individually dismissed without due process.
WHAT DOES UCU SAY?
UCU has consistently said that this ‘informal verbal agreement’ is groundless and that the School must uphold its legal obligation to respect Annex procedures for dismissal:
- The Annex equally protects all to whom it applies, including Professors, Associate Professors, Assistant Professors, pre-NAC Lecturers, and Readers, Education Career Track, Policy Staff, and Research Staff.
- The Annex covers redundancies whether or not an entire unit is affected.
- The purported ‘informal agreement’ is groundless and has no legal effect. It does not justify breaches of contract and constitutes a lack of good faith in negotiation.
When LSE managers were caught using a false justification for non-contractual redundancy procedures and agreed to stop, they did not stop. This must end.
WHAT CAN YOU DO?
- Do not accept any ‘informally agreed’ substitute for the Annex. It is fabricated.
- Spread the word that your employment protections are in the Annex.
- Report it. Let us know if you see the fake agreement: UCU.Secretary@lse.ac.uk
Participate in UCU, and help save employment protections for all of us.
