A pay strategy that can and must win

Conference moves that, since the introduction of the Trade Union Act, our union and the Service Group Executive has failed to adapt to the changing dynamics of the need to win 50% turnouts. We have seen ballots fail to reach the required threshold to undertake lawful industrial action and this has created a legacy of […]

Crisis in Higher Education Industrial Action Balloting

The Higher Education Sector has reached what appears to be a crisis point regarding balloting for strike action over pay. Neither aggregate nor disaggregate balloting appears to be effective when considering the returns from industrial action ballots in Higher Education. Higher Education in UNISON needs to seriously consider why our members are not engaging in […]

Recognising the real impact of Covid and Lockdown on support staff

The work done by members in the last 18 months has been simply phenomenal; or if you prefer, “unprecedented”. Members at all grades have gone that extra mile to essentially keep the Higher Education (HE) sector alive: whether that be staff in security, residential services, cleaning, estates who have stayed on campus, meaning that they […]

Health and Safety

Latest figures from the Office for National Statistics show that, tragically, as at September 2021 almost 160,000 people across the UK have died in circumstances involving Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic. Statistics also show that low paid, black and disabled workers have been at particular risk and that this is heavily influenced by […]

Higher Education (HE) funding campaign – Don’t fail our future

The Coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic which caused the lockdown from mid-March 2020 has had serious repercussions across the higher education sector. Prior to the pandemic, many universities in the UK were already facing serious financial situations with 47 Higher Education Institutions (HEIs) having posted a deficit in July 2019. In July 2020 63 HEIs posted […]

Flexible working and hybrid working

More than four in five workers in Britain want to work flexibly according to a Trade Union Congress (TUC) report on The future of flexible work published in June 2021. Prior to the Covid-19 pandemic, there was inequality in access to genuinely flexible working. As the TUC report notes, “Too many people in working-class occupations […]

Promoting Transgender Equality in Higher Education Institutions

Conference will recall carrying the motion ‘Trans inclusion in higher education workplaces’ in 2017 welcoming trans members’ active participation in UNISON and accepting that trans equality must be addressed in all workplaces. This motion also endorsed the recommendations of the Parliamentary Women and Equalities Committee Inquiry into Transgender Equality, which called for higher education institutions […]

Black Lives Matter – A higher education trade union programme of action

Conference, the international outrage following the death of George Floyd, saw the Black Lives Matter movement take centre stage. Having suffered years of marginalisation, entrenched barriers, structural and institutional racism – people across the world came together to say enough is enough. The worldwide protest of predominantly young, multi-racial people, demanding justice, and an end […]

Defending Higher Education Pensions

Conference condemns the ongoing attack on our defined benefit (DB) pension schemes. Pensions are deferred pay and any cut to our pension schemes is a direct attack on terms and conditions. Conference notes the variety in pension schemes in the Higher Education section. Multi-institution, large scale schemes such as Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), Teachers […]

Higher Education Service Group Executive Pay Motion 2022/23

The past few years have been turbulent for everyone working in higher education due to the precariousness and uncertainty caused by the COVID-19 pandemic and Britain’s withdrawal from the European Union. The past couple of years have seen an unprecedented attack on higher education pay – with the national higher education employers not making a […]

Wholly Owned Subsidiaries

“Conference notes the now well-established practice of Universities utilising various spin-off companies, single purpose vehicles and wholly owned subsidiary companies (WHOs) for a variety of different purposes, including cost saving measures. For example, a University may use a nominally separate company for some of its activity on a small scale to exploit intellectual property, on […]

Universities must take practical steps to support victims of domestic violence

Currently in the UK, almost one in three women will experience domestic abuse in their lifetime, while two women a week are murdered by a partner or ex-partner, usually after a sustained period of suffering abuse. The vast majority of the victims and survivors of domestic abuse are women and children, and women are also […]

Devolution Matters!

Conference acknowledges that there are four nations within the United Kingdom (England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland), with each legislature having autonomy over Higher Education. This has meant that our Higher Education (HE) committees in those nations are more often than not negotiating directly with relevant devolved governments on a range of issues such as […]

Scottish Bargaining & Higher Education Pay

For many, many years New Joint Negotiating Committee for Higher Education Staff (New JNCHES) has failed to deliver pay outcomes that improve or protect our members’ living standards. The employers’ approach to this negotiating forum has not reflected a commitment to genuine negotiation or collective bargaining, and despite the best efforts of our negotiators, New […]

Tackling structural racism in higher education

In 2019, the Equality and Human Rights Commission launched an enquiry into racial harassment into public funded universities in Britain to examine staff and student’s experiences of racial harassment and the effects they might have on their education careers and wellbeing. The report highlighted that racial harassment is a common occurrence for many students and […]