Senate House UNISON condemns proposed outsourcing at UCL

UCL management are planning to outsource 94 cleaning, portering and security staff to private contractors. The majority of these are UNISON members. If they are outsourced, they can expect the following:

• to lose their pensions
• to have their terms and conditions worsened
• to face redundancies, and receive lower redundancy payments
• to lose union recognition
• to be totally separated from their UCL collegues

There are no good reasons for outsourcing to occur. UCL is one of the richest universities in the country. It is not in debt. The decision to outsource displays total contempt for the people who work to keep the college running.

UCL management evidently believes that support workers exist to perform menial tasks and should be procured at the lowest possible cost. We utterly reject this. We believe that support staff, academics and students are all part of the same community. Everyone in that community deserves equal respect. All workers deserve decent pay and conditions.

What can I do?

Our first task is to defeat the proposed changes. We don’t have much time. Consultation ends on May 4. Therefore we want to get as many people as possible involved in a big grassroots campaign, involving support workers, academics and students.

Bloomsbury UNISON and UCU branches, along with student groups and other activists have formed Bloomsbury Fightback! A mass meeting is being organised, where speakers from local Bloomsbury Colleges will talk about what outsourcing has meant for their pay and conditions, and the campaign's next steps will be decided.

If you want to get involved and help, contact danny.millum@sas.ac.uk for more information.