UCL Safety Guards protest at Open Day after redundancies and pay cuts introduced

UCL’s outsourced safety guards will protest to disrupt the college’s Open Day on Friday 30 June and Saturday 1 July, resisting plans to make 40 workers members redundant and drastically scale back the contractual hours for most of the remaining staff.

The demonstration, organised by members of the Unbiased Staff Union of Nice Britain (IWGB), will spotlight to potential college students UCL’s damaged dedication of parity between in-housed and outsourced workers made in 2019 and draw consideration to the various workers being pressured into poverty due to these reneged on guarantees.

Safety guards, outsourced to subcontractor Bidvest Noonan, have been campaigning since 2019 in opposition to “structurally racist” outsourcing practices at UCL, which they are saying create a two-tier workforce the place the bulk BAME outsourced staff are denied the identical rights, pay and dealing circumstances as instantly employed workers.

The 99% black and brown safety workforce are the one ones within the college being focused with the fire-and-rehire scheme which is able to see 40 workers members lose their jobs in the midst of a price of dwelling disaster, and power the rest to reapply for his or her jobs, which for a lot of can be on lowered hours contracts which is able to reduce as much as £13,500 a 12 months from their salaries.

The failure of UCL to intervene within the redundancies contradicts the dedication the college made in 2019 to make sure parity between in-house workers and outsourced workers.

The process being adopted for the redundancies doesn’t match UCL’s personal redundancy procedures. UCL’s redundancy procedures require a minimal 3 month collective session interval, whereas Bidvest Noonan has solely given simply over 1 month, and Bidvest Noonan is providing considerably decrease voluntary redundancy funds than mandated by UCL’s coverage.

Earlier this month safety guards met with MPs to elucidate the operation underway at UCL. Subsequently a number of MPs, together with Ian Mearns MP, strongly criticised the fire-and-rehire practices on show on the college.

Jolly Seaka, a safety guard at UCL says, “4 years in the past UCL promised us they might deal with us with the identical equity and dignity as their in-house workers.

I took them at their phrase, and am now paying the value. UCL has gone again on their dedication and, in the midst of a price of dwelling disaster, are permitting our livelihoods to be reduce away from beneath our toes.

I can barely assist my household as it’s – it doesn’t bear excited about what may occur if these plans go forward.”

Aisha Yusuf, BLM spokesperson says, “This reveals a stage of disdain in the direction of the working-class communities already grappling with the price of dwelling disaster.

Within the face of meals insecurity affecting 1 in 5 ethnic households, it’s repulsive to witness the Provost of UCL receiving a wage exceeding 1 / 4 of one million per 12 months.

This willingness to discard racialised key staff is one other reminder of the ways in which UCL repeatedly betrays its professed rules of anti-racism and equality.”