Independent Workers Union of Great Britain – Universities of London Branch

We’ve had a promising response from Aramark, the hospitality contractor at the UoL, following the start of our campaign to have all staff working at the University be given the option of proper contracts.

Aramark have replied to say that they are in consultation with the University as to how they ‘may adjust their working practices’, and wish to ‘provide alternatives which work for [their staff] if they choose to change’.

Obviously, this is far from a cast-iron guarantee, and we need to ensure that we keep the pressure up to ensure that Aramark honour the spirit of this response and offer contracts to those employees who request them.

We’ll keep you posted BUT do also get in touch if you would like to help with the campaign – uol@iwgb.org.uk.

Hasta la victoria!

We’ve just written again to the University regarding the 2015-16 pay rise, following the employers’ ‘final’ offer of 1.0%. The full email is below, and we’ll let you know as soon as we have more details, as the other unions are consulting over the offer.

The likelihood is that in order to get a better deal, strike action will be necessary. As well as holding a full legal ballot prior to this, we’ll want to fully consult and involve all members on any plans of this kind, probably via an open meeting and an indicative ballot, but in the meantime please do send any feedback to us at uol@iwgb.org.uk.

Dear Kim

Many apologies for the belated response to your email below. Having consulted further with members, I wanted to follow up a few points on this issue.

Firstly, we now see that a ‘final’ offer has been made – of 1.0%. The IWGB considers this unsatisfactory for the reasons specified below, and the other HE unions are currently in consultation with their members. Once the outcome of this consultation is clear, we will be deciding what further action to take.

Secondly, perhaps we should have been clearer as to what we were asking of the University. We understand that it is part of the national-level pay negotiations conducted by UCEA, and in this capacity we are asking the University of London to feed back to the other employers about the discontent its staff feel with the current proposed increase, in order that UCEA as a whole are apprised of feeling over this and are thus able to improve their offer. At the same time, in recognition of the continuing need for an uplift in the wages of staff specifically at the UoL, we are requesting that the University also adjust its own pay bands upwards, which it is perfectly at liberty to do.

Thirdly, it is disappointing, especially in the light of tomorrow’s CAC meeting, that yet another attempt by the IWGB and its members to engage positively with the UoL has been rejected. We would also like to clarify that it is not possible for an employer to unilaterally reject engagement with any union – should the IWGB and its members subsequently choose to take industrial action, then the University will be engaging with us, however involuntarily. It is simply a shame that for the time being this is the only engagement option that the University wishes to afford our members, all of whom are hardworking and dedicated members of staff who simply wish to be properly consulted around issues concerning their remuneration.

Fourthly, members have been asking: please could you clarify that whatever increase is eventually agreed will be applied equally across the board – to Vice-Chancellors as well as to administrative assistants?

As ever, we remain open to all offers of dialogue.

Best wishes,

Catherine

Catherine Morrissey

Secretary, University of London IWGB

Job Brief: Legal Department Coordinator

Salary £21,000, with the option of joining the Union’s pension scheme  

Hours per week 37.5.

Accountable to: the Union’s Executive Committee. Direct line manager will be the IWGB President

Introduction

The Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) was founded in 2012. Outsourced workers in two of our London branches have won the London Living Wage, and through our widely supported 3 Cosas Campaign, members at the University of London also won sick leave, annual leave and pensions. Following the formation of two new branches in the last six months we are looking forward to further expansion and success in new campaigns. We are now recruiting a full-time Legal Department Coordinator to take responsibility in managing the increasing volume of casework and legal services undertaken by the Union’s new Legal Department, based at the Union’s headquarters in Central London. It is a managerial position in which relevant skills and past experience are essential to hit the ground running and work without constant oversight from Union executives. This is a great opportunity for a qualified and enthusiastic person committed to improving working conditions to engage in rewarding and socially meaningful work.

The Role

The main responsibilities of the post are as follows:

• ensuring Union members are matched with trade union reps
• ensuring the smooth operation of the IWGB Legal Department
• managing provision within specified budgets
• ensuring the quality of training and legal work in the Department
• guiding volunteer caseworkers through cases
• preparing tribunal claims
• undertaking litigation where necessary
• expanding the Union’s casework pool
• communicating with management (mostly via email and in formal meetings)
• data management and keeping members updated while acting in accordance to their needs
• helping to prepare bundles, documentation etc.
• instructing barristers for Employment Tribunal cases
• undertaking additional duties appropriate to the post within the ambit of the Legal Department
• provide legal surgeries/advice clinics to the public

Training and Development

The Legal Department Coordinator will have the chance to attend any of the numerous scheduled training events, and benefit from doing socially meaningful work in close co-operation with our Union’s members.

Personal specification

The ideal candidate will:

• hold a law degree and will have a good knowledge of UK employment law
• have extensive experience with employment-related case work
• have been an active member of a union or have knowledge of the trade union movement
• value the IWGB’s forceful approach and be personally committed to social justice and the improvement of working conditions
• have some supervisory and/or managerial experience
• have good computer skills including a knowledge of MS Office, and Excel
• have a high level of personal organisation and an ability to deal with a demanding and stressful job

Application

Please include the following in an email to Jason Moyer-Lee (IWGB President) at Jasonmoyer-lee@iwgb.org.uk:

• CV
• Cover letter
• 2 references

The deadline for submission is 12 June – 17:00. Strong applicants will be scheduled for an interview in June, after which shortlisted applicants will be invited to meet with the Union’s National Executive. A decision will then be made for the successful candidate to fill the post from 6 July.

As many of you will know, for some time we’ve been working towards setting up the IWGB Legal Department – essentially a fully-functioning casework team, able to handle the huge volume of cases that come to us each week.

This department will also help members from other branches in the union, and will initially be based at the UoL office on Lamb’s Conduit Street (although we hope to move it if funding can be secured). In fact, we’re already running a proto-legal department right now, with around 15 volunteer caseworkers, several translation and general volunteers, plus Jason overseeing. Again, this situation isn’t sustainable and means our ability to take on new campaigns and cases is severely limited!

We’ve successfully applied for grant funding to employ a Coordinator for the department, who will oversee all the casework and manage the volunteer caseworkers. It’s a huge job, and will require a special person with a variety of skills – for which we have to pay a fair wage. This is the first time we’ve really employed someone and marks a huge step for our union, so we want to do it right!

The crux of the issue is that, although we did get some grant funding, it was significantly less than we need. We therefore need to raise another £10K per year to make this work. That’s where the change comes in!

At the moment all IWGB branches keep 75% of the subscription fees that members pay, and only 25% devolves to the central union. This is significantly more than any other union branches keep – Senate House UCU, for example, only receives 20p per month from each member! The rest of the £20 or so that the majority of their members pay goes to the national body.

At this week’s meeting we will propose to reduce our branch’s share to 50%. This will still leave the branch with enough money to function, but will raise (in conjunction with similar contributions from all the other branches) enough money to ensure that we can pay the Coordinator’s salary for the next two years.

As you know, IWGB is run by its members, so it’s not possible to make important changes like this without your approval! However, our branch will be one of the biggest beneficiaries of the department, without which IWGB cannot increase its influence in the UK. With the recent change of government, it’s no exaggeration to say that IWGB will be needed more than ever.

Please give it some thought, and come and vote on Friday! If you can’t attend the above-mentioned meeting, the rest of the times are listed here.

You may have already seen the announcement on the UoL intranet (https://intranet.london.ac.uk/6395.html) that the SAUL Negotiating Committee has agreed a set of proposed changes to the scheme.

The key elements of this are the closing of the final salary section of SAUL, the increase in employer contributions from 13% to 16% (employee contributions will stay at 6%), and the move to a 75ths accrual rate (from the current 80ths accrual rate).

This could definitely have been worse – the employers are contributing more, and a 75ths accrual rate is an improvement BUT this is counterbalanced by the closure of the final salary scheme (which during the last changes they promised would be preserved!)

As I think was mentioned in our last email, the justification for any of these changes is very spurious – we are losing our final salary pensions to pay for a ‘deficit’ largely caused by the employers’ past pension holidays.

Furthermore, the employer will still be paying less as a percentage towards SAUL than they contribute to USS.

As a consequence, we’re urging members to reject these proposals.

So what happens next?

• UNISON and Unite are currently recommending these changes to their members
• If they reject them, then there will be a ballot for strike action – in this case the IWGB will also ballot its members and recommend industrial action
• If they accept them (we will know this by the end of May) there will then be a 60-day consultation period for all SAUL members, regardless of union, probably beginning in July – we would urge all IWGB members to take part in this and to reject the current proposals

We’ll be discussing this at the next branch meeting on 22 May (12.30, IoE), but do just get back to us (uol@iwgb.org.uk) if you have any questions or suggestions regarding this.

Our branch secretary Catherine has written to the University to submit the IWGB’s pay claim for 2015-16. For more info or with any questions drop us a line at uol@iwgb.org.uk, and read the full text of her letter below…

Dear Kim,

I am writing in my capacity as University of London branch Secretary with regard to the HE pay claim for 2015/16.

For most HE staff, the last five settlements have amounted to approximately a 4.8% increase in pay. When the annualised RPI increases over this period are combined with the forecast RPI rate up to July 2015, cumulative inflation will have increased by approximately 19.8%.

Depending on the salary point, the result in real terms is a cut of over 15% in the value of take -home pay, with some employees seeing even worse cuts.

However, rather than address this shortfall, the current offer from UCEA is 0.9% – below even the current low rate of RPI – which will leave employees even worse off in real terms.

As you know, a final meeting is due to take place next week, on 12 May. The IWGB is calling on the University:

1. As part of UCEA, to make a realistic pay offer that starts to correct the significant loss of earnings all employees have suffered in recent years. This should be no less than 5% this year, with a firm commitment to making up the recent shortfall over the 2016/17 and 2017/18 period.
2. To commit to a minimum increase for University of London employees, bearing in mind the consolidation of London Weighting after 22 years at the lowest rate among the London institutions, and the University’s suggested budget surplus of over 5% for this year. We would recommend a lump sum increase of £2000, which would benefit the lowest-paid employees most.

The IWGB will be calling on its members to reject any offer that falls below this, and we will also be calling on other unions to do the same. We’d be happy to meet the University at any point to discuss this issue.

Best wishes

Catherine

Catherine Morrissey

Secretary, University of London IWGB
https://iwgb.wordpress.com/

The IWGB has launched a campaign to end the use of zero-hour contracts by catering contractor Aramark at the University of London, and we were out leafleting this morning (thanks to all who helped!) as part of the first stage of building awareness among staff and visitors of this issue.

More details can be found below, but please do get in touch with us at uol@iwgb.org.uk if you are interested in helping with the campaign in any way. We plan to write officially to the University and Aramark next week, and to escalate the campaign should they prove unwilling to end these exploitative working practices, which no other employees at the University endure.

The majority of the Aramark hospitality workers at the University of London are on zero-hour contracts

This means they:
• have no guarantee of work from week to week
• have no guaranteed weekly income
• are dependent for shifts on the goodwill of managers
• cannot get credit
• cannot get a mortgage and find it hard to rent

The University claims that it does not use zero-hour contracts itself, but cannot control how its contractors run their businesses.

This is not true – after the 2011 Living Wage Campaign it made its contractors pay the London Living Wage.

After the 2013 3 Cosas Campaign it made its contractors pay improved sick and holiday pay.
The University of London could ban zero-hour contracts tomorrow – it would cost next to nothing, and would vastly improve the quality of life of many of our colleagues.

“With the general election fast approaching, last Wednesday Red Pepper hosted ‘Beyond the Ballot Box: Ways We Can Win!’ The aim of the event was to explore, celebrate and be inspired by grassroots politics and the people that are fighting and winning on the issues that matter to us – from stopping social cleansing to education to ending Israeli apartheid.”

Read more about the event here.

Last Friday, IWGB Branch Secretary Catherine Morrissey sent in IWGB members’ collective response to the proposed reorganisation of the University of London International Programmes (UoLIA). IWGB’s comments were acknowledged by the Dean of the International Programmes, Dr Mary Stiasny, who promised to read them with care.

Staff have been assured that no job losses will occur as a result of the reorganisation, but there are still a number of questions and concerns surrounding the plans.

As well as speaking to individual members, IWGB organised an open meeting for UoLIA staff to put forward their views and collated them into a single document, which you can read here. Thanks to everyone who took the time to participate and share their ideas and opinions!