The University of Birmingham (UoB) UNISON branch has announced another strike action on November 18th, following months of disputes over outsourcing and pay.

UNISON members will be striking for a list of demands which include living wage accreditation, a pay rise above the rate of inflation, and action to end the gender pay gap, which UNISON says is 20% at UoB.

During the current dispute, members of the union at the university have been on six days of strike action to demand action over the lack of living wage accreditation, the new payroll system (New Core) not paying UoB employees on time, and poor working conditions at the University.

Members have voted to escalate strike action following a lack of response by the University to the issues raised by striking staff previously.

Living wage accreditation, a pay rise above the rate of inflation, and action to end the gender pay gap

According to UoB UNISON on Twitter, some former members of staff have even had their state benefits affected as the University did not report their wages on time, and some staff have not been paid correctly on the most recent payday.

A video depicting the Vice Chancellor as a cowboy on the Unison Birmingham Uni branch Facebook page outlined some of the issues faced. ‘We are still burdened with: low pay that doesn’t last till the end of the month, stressful working conditions, and of course, bad management […] A bad deal for staff makes the university look bad, brings it into disrepute and isolates us from the rest of the world.’

Seven local MPs have, for the second time, written a letter to the Vice Chancellor David Eastwood renewing their call for the university to commit to paying staff the Living Wage and to bringing all Edgbaston Park Hotel staff in-house.

The letter states: ‘As a leading university in the region, we are bemused by your hesitation towards working towards Living Wage Foundation accreditation, given your commitment to the voluntary rate.’

 ‘On the subject of Edgbaston Park Hotel, as you know, we want to see all outsourced staff brought in-house onto the University of Birmingham payroll so that their pay and terms and conditions are the same as everyone else’s on campus.’

UNISON has stated that it hopes that with the upcoming Living Wage Week, the University and Vice-Chancellor will reconsider their position on the Living Wage and commit to paying it to all university staff.

A spokesperson for the University of Birmingham told Redbrick: ‘We have met with UNISON a number of times to try to bring an end to the dispute and we have not yet been able to reach an agreement.

Support staff were awarded (and paid) a 2% pay increase with effect from August 2018 and were offered a 3% pay increase with effect for August 2019, significantly higher than the increases at other universities in the public sector.

We recognise that staff at the lower end of the pay spectrum may be disproportionately affected by increases in the cost of living or cuts in government funding, which is why this year is the 11th consecutive year that our support staff pay awards are in line with or above those negotiated nationally.

In addition, we have matched the level of the voluntary Living Wage (vLW) for the last four years and offered to commit to continue to match it for at least a further year. As with previous strikes d like o reiterate our thanks to those staff who attended work as normal to ensure students, staff and visitors are affected as little as possible by any disruption.