“We must campaign to protect our members’ jobs,” Kate Muir told UNISON’s higher education conference in Brighton, as she spoke out against government cuts and the “explosion” in student fees, which were bound to have an impact on student numbers, UNISON members’ jobs, and risked creating an “elitist higher education system.”
Service group executive chair Denise Ward warned of the government’s aim “to privatise higher education”and urged delegates to arm themselves against the threat of compulsory redundancies by preparing to “challenge vice chancellors’ pay and other excesses in our sector”.
She condemned the continuing gender pay gap and noted that higher education workers hadn’t had a decent pay award since 2008, meaning “in real terms our pay has fallen year after year.”
Conference voted to submit to the higher education joint union pay claim a one-year settlement equivalent to an average of RPI for the previous year, plus catch up for the real pay cuts over the past three years. They also voted to demand the living wage for all staff working directly or for contractors in higher education.
As Ms Ward said: “Low-paid workers in higher education deserve more than a wage that allows them to just scrape by.”
Tamar Emmanuel from London Metropolitan University, where the living wage has just been introduced, spoke out to say: “I’m proud to say I earn the living wage.
“The living wage isn’t just about money – it’s about dignity, dignity at work. The living wage doesn’t solve all our problems – but it makes such a difference to our lives.”
And she explained that the campaign for a living wage has meant that “nearly everybody has now joined the union. The only way to get dignity at work is to get organised. There are millions of people not on the living wage and it isn’t right.”
Zero hours contracts were another attack on workers that are becoming increasingly popular, conference heard. And, as Lorraine Brown from Northumbria University explained. “it’s not difficult to see why: all the advantages are with the employer.”
But for workers, the contracts “are a recipe for misery and stress,” she said.
Conference voted to campaign for a living wage and to extend decent terms and conditions, including sick pay and annual leave, to all workers.
Delegates spoke out against shared services, privatisation and compulsory redundancies.
Higher education workers’ terms and conditions were under attack and young people faced the loss of the education maintenance allowance, the rise of academy schools and higher education fees running at £9,000 a year.
Conference vowed to work with students and to use “consistent grass roots campaigning”, along with a national strategy, to preserve higher education as “a public service accessible to all.”
“The words ‘consumer’ and ‘market’ are becoming increasingly common in higher education,” warned John Appleton.
And as students begin to see themselves as consumers, their expectations are raised – expectations that are being “met by staff being asked to do more with less.”
This would inevitably lead to more complaints, and while the union should support “an effective complaints procedure,” it should also make sure that “staff are fairly represented within the process,” conference heard.
“Sometimes you have to clean up an enormous pile of excrement,” said Senate House’s Josephine Grahl of the union’s recognition battle at Balfour Beatty, where outsourced London university cleaners had been asked to clean up raw sewage in a hall of residence.
Staff protested, and as complaints against terms and conditions continued to mount, “the recognition agreement was signed a month later,” said Ms Grahl.
The moral of the story? Fighting for recognition with private employers “is worth doing.”
“This economical meltdown,” as Clive Anthony put it, risked sparking a rise in discrimination against disabled, LGBT and Black members.
Despite the Equality Act 2010, which gives protection to disabled employees, they are suffering discrimination as disability-related sickness is used as a reason for redundancy.
Bullying was on the increase but fear for their jobs meant that LGBT members were “keeping their heads down” and Black members found that they were “first in the firing line”.
Conference vowed to “get more serious” about bringing young members into the union and to embrace new technology and social media whilst continuing to value face-to-face communication.
And it condemned the government’s revamped Prevent Strategy, which calls on university staff to inform police about Muslim staff who are depressed or isolated.
Conference also discussed the government attack on public service pensions.