Update 07.09.21 – Additional point added on areas where face coverings are required As September begins we find ourselves in a broadly similar situation to last year – coming out of a summer where restrictions have been minimal into a new academic year, in which the key driver seems to be to keep things as…
While it’s a bit of a relief that Monday will not see radical changes to safety arrangements at the University, there were a couple of issues in the Vice Chancellor’s recent announcement on the University’s plans for the transition period to the start of the new academic year. Firstly and possibly most urgently there is…
No to the ‘covid blip’ redundancies in Creative Media Joint blog-post with Birmingham UCU In a worrying sign that the University of Birmingham is looking to use the Covid-19 pandemic as a reason to justify outsourcing and redundancies, we have now been informed of a proposal to make up to 10 staff redundancy in the…
UNISON reps continue to highlight the unsafe situation in particular departments on campus. In particular we’ve been focusing on the situation in cleaning services, where all staff are still being asked to attend work despite access to many buildings being restricted or prevented entirely. Over 70 cleaning staff so far have signed a collective letter…
Since our last safety update at the start of term, we’ve been consistently pressuring the University to take the national lockdown seriously, by reducing activity on campus as much as possible, reducing the number of support staff required as a result. While we’ve had some engagement from the University on which buildings remain open, which…
Our email reporting concerns 22.01.21 Dear Simon, Gillian, Mark, I am writing on behalf of UNISON members further to discussions this week regarding serious safety concerns that we feel have the potential to put employees of the University at risk of serious and imminent danger, and particularly those working within the University nurseries and the…
Following the government announcement of a new national lockdown on Monday the 4th January 2020 we will be keeping this post up to date with all of the latest advice for members. If your question isn’t answered below you can email us at unisonbham@bham.ac.uk, call us on 07964926949 or message us on Facebook or Twitter….
Press contact: James Brackley (UCU), jb4243@hotmail.com; Mike Moore (UNISON), mich_moore@hotmail.co.uk;07/09/2020 [STARTS] As the number of cases rise across the country and concerns grow nationally about the potential impact of reopening Universities, unions at the University of Birmingham have expressed serious concerns about plans to reopen the Edgbaston campus. There have been at least three confirmed…
In March, before the lockdown started, the University made a commitment to its staff that it would notify them if there were confirmed cases of coronavirus on campus. On the 23rd of March the University both clarified and repeated this commitment by stating that: “We will continue to follow this notification process until the University…
Reposting advice from our Facebook page Government advice throughout the pandemic has been fast changing and sometimes contradictory. Late last week the government indicated that new local restrictions will be put in place across a large area in the North of England, and further loosening of lockdown restrictions have been paused. While the government maintains that…
