This week, staffside unions (Unite, UCU, and Unison) wrote a joint letter to the Director of UNICUS regarding the company's decision to furlough workers on 80% pay.

We believe that the University has a responsibility to ensure that the Vice-Chancellor’s pledge on a Living Wage, for all workers, includes UNICUS workers. If UNICUS employees are furloughed, and made to suffer a 20% pay cut while University employees receive full pay, then there would be a legitimate accusation that the University is using UNICUS, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the University, to avoid the commitments the University has made to its own employees.

FULL LETTER BELOW

Dear Caryn,

The Campus Trade Unions  (UCU,  UNISON and Unite)  are writing to you regarding the decision to furlough UNICUS staff on 80% pay,  to formally ask that you match the University and the Student Union commitments by agreeing to top-up the government contribution to ensure all workers are paid in full.

Though we do not, as trade union representatives of the University of Sheffield, represent UNICUS workers, we are concerned that this decision is detrimental to our own individual members based in areas where there are ACS staff. UNICUS’s policy means that managers in ACS will have to tell UNICUS employees to manage on 80% of their income, whilst reassuring University employees that they will receive their full income. An unfortunate conclusion that may be drawn from this is that UNICUS employees are 20% less valuable to management than University employees.

The government’s furlough scheme will allow UNICUS to recoup 80% of wages for their full-time and part-time contracted staff - money which UNICUS would have budgeted for pre-crisis. The government reimbursement is money that UNICUS would not otherwise have expected, and it could be used to top-up the government’s contribution. The claim that a top-up would force redundancies thus seems implausible. Could you please tell us how much you estimate the top-up would cost UNICUS? 

A further concern is that many of UNICUS’s casual workers are University of Sheffield students who are working to make ends meet. Your furlough policy creates a situation where students who are struggling to get by are being told they must pay full tuition for last semester, whilst also being told by their University’s private commercial enterprise that they need to manage that alongside a 20% pay cut.

We also believe that it is in the University’s best interest to protect UNICUS workers’ pay due to the financial risks presented by a potential drop in new and returning students next year. It is in the University’s best interests to ensure that student-workers have the financial security to return in September. 

Over the past four weeks, Unite have surveyed hundreds of casual workers across UNICUS, the University, and the Student Union, to discover the human impact of a potential reduction in wages: 

  • 71% of respondents depend on this wage as their main source of income
  • 70% of respondents are worried about their ability to buy food
  • 89% of respondents would struggle without this income

UNICUS pays a living wage because they “recognise that in-work poverty is a very real issue particularly to families and are pleased to be able to reward our staff for the commitment they display”. If UNICUS abandon their commitment to a living wage now, when there is no possibility of these workers finding jobs elsewhere, hundreds of workers, many students, could be plunged into poverty.

We believe that the University has a responsibility to ensure that the Vice-Chancellor’s pledge on a Living Wage for all workers, includes UNICUS workers. If furloughed UNICUS employees are made to suffer a 20% pay cut while University employees receive full pay, then there would be a legitimate accusation that the University is using UNICUS, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of the University, to avoid the commitments the University has made to its own employees.

We would be happy to work constructively with you, and your relevant counterparts from the University, to discuss ways in which you can meet the expectations of your workers and the wider university community by topping-up all your staff wages to 100% 

Yours sincerely 

JUCC Staffside:

Unite TUoS Branch Committee

Sheffield UCU Branch Committee

UNISON TUoS Branch Committee