| Support the Support Staff UNISON strike As is now starting to become usual practice, last Friday’s “View from the VC” passed without a single mention of the upcoming UNISON strike action which is due to take place THIS WEEK: Wednesday to Friday. What is the UNISON strike over? The strike relates to the way that the University management are forcing through contract changes on all support staff across the University. What is all this about a bribe? As UNISON outline, ‘to force staff to sign, the University told staff if they did not sign the new terms within 2 months they would miss out on a bribe of £700. All at the height of the cost of living crisis when lowest paid staff were most vulnerable, and after 14.35 % of real terms pay cuts since 2013. UNISON have been petitioning the University to become a living wage employer for years. The University’s refusal forces UNISON to fight every year for our lowest-paid members to earn above the Living Wage Threshold. Now that the University has undermined the principle of collective bargaining, all future negotiations are in jeopardy.” What can we do to support UNISON? Support the UNISON strike action – join the UNISON rally at 12pm on Wednesday at the University station plaza. |
| Support for Disabled Staff, the missing Employees Disability Advisor, and the EAP investigation BUCU have been calling for the replacement of the Employees Disability Advisor for now well over a year. The University management have repeatedly refused to do this, claiming instead that the new EAP scheme is a suitable replacement. In October 2023 we were told that disabled staff would benefit from a new Staff Disability Hub. At that time, we surveyed our members to ask whether they viewed this as a suitable replacement for the Employees Disability Advisor – with 94.4% of our members answering no. Now it transpires that the University’s EAP service is to be investigated by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy (BACP), following a BBC investigation uncovered a system of targets used by the EAP provider (Health Assured) which are designed to keep calls below 19 minutes and to refer just 18% of callers to therapy. The highly concerning reports contained in the BBC investigation are worth reading. BUCU remains of the view that an important and concrete way to support disabled staff is to replace the post of Employees Disability Advisor, which has been vacant now for over two years – and which has left disabled staff without the necessary support in the workplace. Neither the Staff Disability Hub, nor the under-investigation EAP scheme are good enough! |
Birmingham UCU 
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