Workers

No free speech for UCL’s outsourced workforce

Despite his repeated claims that the ‘right to protest, debate, and challenging ideas is fundamental to our role as a university’, the President and Provost Michael Spence appears to have no interest in extending the freedom of speech to UCL’s over 200 outsourced security workers. Malvika Murkumbi Investigations Editor While the Provost has begrudgingly agreed

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The Bleak Reality of UCL History Department’s Redundancy Crisis

Robert Delaney  Higher education is in a bad place. Those reading who were at UCL last year know exactly what I mean. Marking boycotts, strikes and post-coronavirus abnormalities have made this university a nightmare to navigate for teaching staff and students. Yet, despite all the disruption of the last few years, 2023/24 has been hailed

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UCL v. Security Staff: Echoes of Exploitation Ignored by Student Apathy

Rusheen Bansal “They’re hiring new people when employees are losing hours.”  On December 4, spirited chants reverberated across campus as aggrieved black and brown security officers called for an end to UCL’s derogatory outsourcing practices in their latest bout of strike action. Having swapped their shiny blue jackets for crimson vests, the officers raised megaphones,

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Exploitation and Inequality: The Plight of UCL’s Outsourced Security Staff

Andrea Bidnic, Mads Brown & Lily Park In a statement made in November, UCL claimed outsourced security staff were “employed under the same terms and key conditions as in-house staff”. Yet, security workers at the picket line from the 14th to 16th November 2022 told The Cheese Grater a different story.  UCL introduced outsourcing: the

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Cost of Greed Crisis: UCU’s Persisting Strike Actionucl

Zhenya Robinson & Finley Littlefair On the 24th, 25th and 30th of November, universities saw the biggest strike turnout in higher education, estimating over 70 000 academic staff taking action and 2.5 million students being affected across the UK. If you’re a returning student at UCL, you are probably quite familiar with the strikes that

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furlough

Workers demand furlough after being compelled to work in non-essential buildings at UCL

Although Sadiq Khan declared COVID-19 to be a ‘major incident’ in London, many workers are still being compelled to provide cleaning and security services in non-essential buildings across universities in London. The Universities of London branch of the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB) are concerned of the health risks that are posed as

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UCU Academics Strike Explained

At the end of October, a majority of UCU (University and College Union) members voted in favour of strike actions, which have begun on Monday, 25th of November. Sixty universities across the UK, including UCL, and approximately 40,000 UCU members will be partaking in the industrial action. The strike actions are being taken in response

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outsourcing

Strikes to end outsourcing of UCL cleaners, porters, and security workers

Despite being one of the wealthiest universities in the country, UCL implements some of the worst terms and conditions for its outsourced workforce and refuses to bring staff in house. As such, strikes have been conducted in protest of outsourcing workers. Currently most of UCL’s catering, cleaning, and security staff are not employed by the

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Keeping it casual: UCL outsource temporary staff to Unitemps

From September 2018, UCL will outsource employment of temporary workers to an external agency, Unitemps in a move which UCU representatives have described as ‘undermining … staff rights’ and propagating an ‘anti-university community culture’. Student Ambassador jobs will be the first to be outsourced. However, in time, all temporary and non-academic student contracts will be

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How UCL Risked The Immigration Status of Vice Wardens For Years

Earlier this year, an international student and former vice-warden of UCL accommodation shared her story with The Cheese Grater. Her tale exposes a system that cares little for international students other than the money they bring in. It is a story of bullying, dishonesty, and mistreatment by senior staff. In our resulting investigation, The Cheese Grater has

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Zero hours, agency workers and rodents: investigation reveals Sodexo staff concerns

An anonymous letter criticising Sodexo’s management staff, seen by The Cheese Grater, purportedly sent by an employee, has raised alarm amongst Sodexo and UCL Facilities. Addressed to the Provost, and initially sent to Michael Arthur, Rex Knight and UCLU BME Officer Sayeeda Ali, the letter makes several damning claims regarding the treatment of Sodexo employees.

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Teaching on the cheap: UCL’s exploitation of teaching assistants revealed

A UCLU report, released this past week, has laid bare the unfair and exploitative conditions postgraduate teaching assistants (PGTA) experience A startling gender pay gap has also been revealed, along with a big difference between the pay package of international PGTAs and that of their British counterparts. Low Pay UCLU estimates that PGTAs receive an

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