- Conference
- 2016 Higher Education Service Group Conference
- Date
- 4 November 2015
- Decision
- Carried
Conference, higher education employers are increasingly using the creation of wholly owned subsidiary companies to transfer support staff to deliver services. This is being used as a way to externalise staff for the purpose of creating a two-tier workforce to undermine the terms and conditions of new workers and placing the pensions and other contractual obligations of existing staff under threat. In certain circumstances UNISON has been de-recognised following staff transferring to a university wholly owned subsidiary. Whilst the employers see arms-length companies as a way of reducing costs, they fail to factor in the costs of running a subsidiary company; the reputational cost of failing to meet the required standards imposed by external regulatory authorities and the increasing standards demanded by a student population paying ever increasing fees and costs. This inevitably results in falling league table places and falling student numbers.
There is no place in higher education for employers to use this type of company as a method of reducing the terms and conditions of staff or to undermine established pension provision. We must strongly resist this development in the sector.
It is important that higher education institutions are fully aware of the problems associated with using a wholly owned subsidiary to deliver services rather than retaining its support staff in house.
Conference calls on the Service Group Executive to:-
A)Raise awareness about the implications of arms-length companies in the sector.
B)Produce materials explaining the disadvantages of wholly owned subsidiaries containing the tools to challenge their development.
C)Encourage members to inform their branch of pending job losses following the introduction of arms-length companies at their university and to campaign against such job losses.
D)Develop case studies that demonstrates the negative effect of the introduction of wholly owned subsidiaries from within Higher Education and other sectors within UNISON.
E)Include as a mainstream topic for possible fringe / caucus meeting at conference 2017.