The University of Birmingham’s (UoB) Guild of Students has taken the decision to temporarily flexibly furlough members of staff, including the officer team, over the December holiday period.
Between 1st December and 11th January the Guild will be utilising the Government’s Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to introduce a flexible furlough system for members of its staff and officer team. Arrangements will be reviewed regularly throughout this period.
The decision to flexibly our officer team and staff, has not been taken lightly
Flexible furlough allows the Guild to employ its staff on terms more favourable to the organisation, for example by adapting work hours and patterns to better suit its current position. By choosing to pursue this at a traditionally quieter time of year, and considering that all teaching has been moved online to allow students to travel home, it is hoped that disruption will be minimal.
This decision has been made in order to ‘safeguard the financial future of the Guild’ after ‘continued disruption to [their] commercial operations’ due to the continuing COVID-19 pandemic.
Guild President Tobi Adeyemi explained: ‘Both local and national restrictions for much of 2020 have impacted our finances, and the new Tier 3 restrictions will mean our commercial trading will cease for the immediate future.’
She also assured Redbrick that ‘the decision to flexibly our officer team and staff, has not been taken lightly,’ and emphasised that the support offered to students ‘continues to remain the Guild’s number one priority.’
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