Justice for UCL Workers - End Outsourcing

UCL Provost Michael Arthur and UCL Council

JUSTICE FOR UCL WORKERS - END OUTSOURCING AT UCL

Outsourced workers at UCL are fighting for equality. Security officers, cleaners and porters across UCL are united and determined to fight to end the scourge of outsourcing and win justice, equality and dignity for all workers at UCL.

Outsourced workers at UCL suffer from far worse terms and conditions than our colleagues who are directly employed by UCL.

- We receive no occupational sick pay, meaning we are forced to work while we are sick in order to survive.

- Our bare miniumum holiday entitlement means we do not get paid during UCL closure days, and it is very difficult for many of us with families in other countries to travel to see them.

- Our meagre pensions mean we do backbreaking work into old age and then retire into poverty.

- Increasingly, since the latest subcontractors took over the contract, many of us are on precarious zero hours contracts, which make it hard to know if we will be able to stay in these jobs for long.

We are also more likely to suffer from bullying and discrimination by unaccountable outsourced managers. And we are faced with frequent issues of mismanagement: since Axis took over the security contract at UCL, they have repeatedly failed to pay security officers correctly for our holidays.

Despite being one of the richest universities in the country, UCL continues to treat the mostly Black, Asian, Latin American and minority ethnic outsourced workforce as second class workers, denying us the basic employment rights that all other UCL employees take for granted.


We are preparing for our almost 300 members to take strike action over our terms and conditions. We demand equality of terms and conditions with UCL's direct employees and we demand an end to outsourcing.


WE ARE ALL ONE UNIVERSITY AND ONE WORKFORCE. IT’S TIME FOR UCL TO END OUTSOURCING.


To: UCL Provost Michael Arthur and UCL Council
From: [Your Name]

Dear Professor Arthur,

As you are aware, UCL's predominantly BAME and migrant cleaners, porters and security officers are on far inferior pay and terms and conditions, than their directly employed colleagues who work in the same buildings.

They receive the bare minimum for holidays despite the need many have to accumulate enough days to return home and visit family, they receive no occupational sick pay meaning they are constrained in practice to work sick or injured, and the cowboy contractors UCL have assigned as their employers contribute only a pittance to their pensions.

This two-tier system is deeply unjust and it is hugely disappointing that UCL has maintained this system of exploitation for so long. This situation is unacceptable at UCL, which prides itself as a global institution and one of Britain's leading universities.

We fully support the demands of the IWGB union, who are campaigning for UCL to bring outsourced security officers, cleaners and porters in-house. We will stand shoulder to shoulder alongside our outsourced staff in their campaign.

We urge you to listen to your outsourced workforce and promptly bring these workers in house, or take part in meaningful negotiations with the IWGB, who represent the majority of the outsourced workforce, to that end.

It is high time to the exploitative practice of outsourcing at UCL.

Best regards,