Workers employed by outsourcing organisations that have contracts with the University of London, and who are members of the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB), are undertaking a two-day strike in a dispute over employment rights.
More than 100 workers will be taking strike action on Wednesday 25 and Thursday 26 April 2018. These include cleaners, porters, security officers, receptionists, gardeners, post room workers and audio-visual workers employed by Cordant Security, Cordant Services and Nurture. They seek to be made direct employees of the university, rather than outsourced workers.
If successful, the affected IWGB members will be entitled to employment rights equal to those of direct employees. These include a workplace pension, the national minimum wage, holiday pay, sick pay, maternity pay and paternity pay.
The industrial action forms part of IWGB’s Back In-House campaign, which is asking the University of London to stop outsourcing work, abolish zero-hours contracts and implement pay rises.
Henry Chango-Lopez, president of the union, said: “The university has repeatedly refused all attempts by the outsourced workers and their union, the IWGB, to engage in a constructive discussion over outsourcing.
“This intransigence has led to increasing anger among the workers, which is demonstrated by the growing number of workers that are choosing to take industrial action. The university would be well advised to heed the demands of the workers and make them direct employees.”
University of London was unavailable for comment at time of publication.