Independent Workers Union of Great Britain – Universities of London Branch

Hundreds of UCL cleaners, porters and security to vote on strike action over pay and conditions

• Strikes will be part of the IWGB’s campaign, launched on 8 October, to end outsourcing at UCL.
• Workers have far worse conditions than directly employed staff, including not being paid the first three days they are off sick.
• The IWGB has documented a number of management failures and discriminatory practices, including the failure to pay over £15,000 in holiday pay to 30 workers.

9 October: The Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) is to ballot cleaners, porters and security officers for strike action at London’s largest university, UCL, in what could be the biggest strike ever of outsourced workers in UK higher education history.

The IWGB will be balloting almost 300 workers over their terms and conditions, as part of the union’s campaign, launched yesterday (8 October), to end outsourcing and zero hours contracts at UCL. The strike ballot will specifically demand the outsourcing companies that manage the security contract, Axis, and the cleaning contract, Sodexo, put cleaners, porters and security officers on the same terms and conditions as UCL’s direct employees. The results of the ballot are expected on 5 November.

Outsourced workers receive worse sick pay, pension, holiday pay, and parental leave than their in-house colleagues. They are also more likely to suffer from bullying and discrimination than directly employed workers.

Specifically, while direct employees can receive up to 26 weeks of pay when they are off sick, outsourced workers are on the statutory minimum, which means that they get no pay on the first three days they are off sick, after which they are entitled to £94.25 a week. This means that many workers chose to work while sick, rather than risk losing a day’s pay. (See comparisons of other conditions in notes below)

IWGB University of London branch chair and former UCL cleaner Maritza Castillo Calle said: “UCL would not be able to function without its cleaners, porters and security officers, however for years the university and its contractors have been happy to treat them like second class workers. They are overworked, underpaid and mistreated, while UCL is happy to look the other way when issues are raised about the abject failure of its contractors to treat people with basic dignity. We gave UCL a clear deadline by which to present a plan to end outsourcing which it failed to abide by. Now we are left with no option but to strike.”

Over the last year the IWGB has also documented a number of severe management failures and discriminatory practices by the outsourcing companies.

The IWGB brought complaints on behalf of 30 Axis security officers that were owed over £15,000, when the company failed to properly pay their holiday pay over a period of three months, between December and February. Following these formal complaints by the University of London branch secretary, the money was paid, but there have been other instances of non-payment of holiday pay since.

In March, Sodexo tried to introduce a biometric time management system, which would require cleaners, the vast majority of whom are migrant workers, to have their fingerprints scanned when logging in and out of work. Following a collective grievance, and protests by the IWGB and its members, the introduction of this discriminatory system to monitor workers was called off.

In September, the IWGB launched a collective grievance on behalf of 30 cleaners and porters who complain that managers assign them an excessive amount of work, resulting in significant levels of exhaustion and stress. Attempts by management to further increase these workloads have so far been stopped by the intervention of IWGB reps.

BREAKING NEWS: Just hours before the IWGB’s in-housing deadline to UCL expired this afternoon, we heard that UCL intends to offer parity of terms and conditions with in-house staff to outsourced security guards, which would be a massive improvement on the status quo.

But parity of terms and conditions is not the same as going back in house, as it does not address issues of accountability, mistreatment and mismanagement. What’s more, there is no clear timetable for delivery of this and nothing has been offered to the cleaners and porters.

Later this evening we received an insultingly lazy response email from  UCL to our letter of demands, which was totally non-committal and offered no guarantees of any progress whatsoever.

UCL Clearly thought they could prevent an IWGB campaign with this last ditch move. But it has not worked. The deadline has expired. Our members will be launching their campaign tomorrow morning!

This morning Jason Moyer-Lee, General Secretary of the IWGB, delivered a letter to the Provost of UCL with an ultimatum: bring the outsourced security officers, cleaners and porters in-house by October 7th or face a strong and well-organised campaign by the workers and the union!

Read the letter to the Provost here.

The IWGB represents the majority of security and around 150 cleaners at UCL, and has been building towards a campaign for the past 18 months, holding breakfast stalls, outreach visits to isolated buildings, and working with members to elect reps among the workforce.

The outsourced employees, many of them migrant workers, have endured years of poor management, disrespect, low or missing pay, and exploitation by the third-party companies that employ them – Axis and Sodexo – companies not exactly known for their respect for human rights or the well-being of migrants… 

Now, through the union, these workers are taking a stand and demanding justice. By being brought in house, they will be eligible for the same rights, sick pay, holidays, maternity pay, and pensions as their directly employed colleagues and will be able to hold UCL accountable for any issues they face at work, rather than having to negotiate with faceless third-party companies.

UCL is the behemoth of London unis, the second biggest university in the country and the only remaining major London university not to have committed to ending the outsourcing of its workers. We would not be commencing this battle if we did not feel the workers, the union, and the rest of the university community were ready to win.

We hope that Michael Arthur will be wise enough to agree to this, or at least to enter into negotiations. If not, we will be with the workers every step of their way in their struggle.

If you are interested in being involved in the campaign (we welcome students past and present, members of staff, and anyone else), please leave your details here.