UCU, which represents academics and support staff, has written to UCL professor and president Dr Michael Spence expressing concern at what it says appear to be bullying and strike tactics. “Whether this is intended or not, UCL should not attempt to present the use of agency workers to break strikes as if it were a neutral staffing act,” wrote the union’s university branch president, Sean Wallis. The union referred to the university’s admission, first reported by the Guardian, that its security contractor had subcontracted workers “as a short-term measure to ensure business continuity and campus safety during the period of industrial action” from the existing , outsourcing security guards. “This appears to mean that agency staff are intended to be used to break the strike, taking advantage of a newly created vacuum that entered parliament this summer,” the UCU wrote. Wallis said the Trade Union Congress “had already launched a legal challenge to this window”. Many UCL security staff went on strike on Monday over pay and union recognition. The striking workers said they discovered on the Friday before the strike that their overtime was abruptly canceled and the shifts turned over to agency workers. The UCU said this “appears to be an attempt to victimize workers exercising their legal rights to join a union and take industrial action”, adding: “Striking staff are being denied the option of making up for their low pay with overtime , over and in addition to the loss of wages for a day’s strike.” In the letter, sent on Tuesday and seen by the Guardian, UCU asked UCL if and when senior managers were informed about the agency’s reliance on staff during the strike and for an “update on the consultation on the insurance coverage of these employees and other currently assigned colleagues’. The IWGB said its members were asking for between £2 and £3 more an hour – depending on the worker – to bring it all up to £15. He said this would raise pay to the level UCL’s in-house security staff were at before outsourcing began two decades ago – and would not come close to reversing the erosion caused by inflation at the time. Archie Bland and Nimo Omer take you to the top stories and what they mean, free every weekday morning Privacy Notice: Newsletters may contain information about charities, online advertising and content sponsored by external parties. For more information, see our Privacy Policy. We use Google reCaptcha to protect our website and Google’s Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply. UCL has been approached for comment.
