Communication facilities

In the interests of promoting good industrial relations and effective representation, the University has decided to provide the following facilities to its recognised trade unions.

Webpages

The University will provide a location for a webpage for each recognised trade union, within the bath.ac.uk domain which can be updated by identified and accredited officers of that trade union. The identified officers of each trade union will be able to undertake University CMS training which enables the webpages to be maintained effectively. The identified trade union officers will maintain their webpages in line with the University’s Acceptable Use policy.

Noticeboards

The University will provide four secured standard-sized noticeboards across the campus at locations determined by the University, which can be updated by the identified and accredited officers of the recognised trade unions. The trade unions will maintain these noticeboards so that they have a neat and professional appearance. No material of a personally or generally offensive nature may be displayed on these noticeboards. Where concern is expressed about a document displayed on a noticeboard, the University will request that it is removed and the relevant trade union will remove this. If particular noticeboards are not utilised or maintained or there are ongoing issues with the material displayed, the University may discontinue these − giving one months’ notice to the trade unions concerned.

Email

The following arrangements will apply:

a. Recognised trade unions will maintain their own listings of the email addresses of trade union members and will communicate with their members as the recognised trade union and its accredited representatives and members determine following all requirements of the Data Protection Act (2003) and the University’s Acceptable Use policy.

b. In addition, the University will afford their trade unions access to non-members by email on an annual basis. This will be to staff in the constituencies for which they are recognised which is:

• UCU – staff from grade 6 to 9 in the Education & Research (E&R) and Management, Specialist & Administrative (MSA) job families
• UNISON – staff in the MSA, Operations, Facilities & Support (OFS) and Technical & Experimental (T&E) job families.
• Unite – staff in T&E, OFS and MSA job families

Acceptable Use

When using facilities provided by the University for the purposes of communication, the recognised trade unions must comply with the University’s procedures for acceptable use set out in the University’s Acceptable Use Policy. The University will similarly respect the confidential and sensitive nature of communications between accredited union representatives and their members and trade union.