No improvements made to pay and conditions offer – UNISON says reject
| | | | |

No improvements made to pay and conditions offer – UNISON says reject

ByBranch Committee

On 17 February UNISON members passed a motion calling for urgent improvements to the University’s offer on pay spine reform (and changes to conditions). This gave University management until the start of this week to come back to us. Unfortunately they have confirmed that they are not willing to negotiate at this stage.  While this…

Support staff pay proposals
| | | | | |

Support staff pay proposals

ByBranch Committee

University releases proposals on support staff pay (and conditions) The University has released what they describe as their final offer on support staff pay. All trade unions are now moving to consult their members on the proposals. The committee’s view on them is that while generous for some staff, there remain significant issues with the…

Pay spine talks – explainer and update
| | | |

Pay spine talks – explainer and update

ByBranch Committee

What is the pay spine and what are the discussions for? The structure of grades and points is how our pay is organised. Our yearly pay talks mostly involve increasing everyone’s pay by a percentage, but the pay spine talks are more nuanced and include negotiating the pay people begin on, how quickly they move…

University’s Hotel set to make big real terms pay cut for staff

University’s Hotel set to make big real terms pay cut for staff

ByBranch Committee

Despite current sky-high levels of inflation, staff at the University-owned Edgbaston Park Hotel are facing a big real-terms pay cut, unless a drastic improvement in the latest offer occurs. Following a pay freeze in 2020/21, the Hotel is refusing to move from their initial, derisory, offer of 2% and an early implementation of the minimum…

How safe are the plans for September?
| |

How safe are the plans for September?

ByBranch Committee

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…

Initial reaction to VC’s email on “transition” to September
| |

Initial reaction to VC’s email on “transition” to September

ByBranch Committee

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…

Counselling provision at University outsourced until at least the beginning of new academic year
| | |

Counselling provision at University outsourced until at least the beginning of new academic year

ByBranch Committee

UCU and UNISON, the unions representing mental health support workers at the University of Birmingham, are seriously concerned about changes made to counselling provision at the University last month. After years of underfunding and understaffing the University has elected not to replace counsellors after all but one of the existing post-holders left in March via…

University puts catering and conferences staff at risk of redundancy. Also seeks to force staff onto “flexible” contracts
| |

University puts catering and conferences staff at risk of redundancy. Also seeks to force staff onto “flexible” contracts

ByBranch Committee

On Wednesday and Thursday last week all staff working in the University of Birmingham’s catering and conferences departments were invited to meetings with senior managers and HR. At these meetings roughly half of the staff (almost 120 staff in total), including chefs, supervisors and the whole Conference and Events Department were informed they were at…