Financial hardship support for uni workers
Student workers who were left struggling to pay their bills when their furlough bid was turned down by the University of the West of Scotland will now receive financial help equal to their monthly wage.
The staff, who work on zero-hour contracts in campus catering to support their studies, and their union, Unite, have secured support until at least July 31 after negotiations with the university.
They had been supporting themselves through their studies by working in the Paisley campus cafe and coffee shop, but stopped working when campuses closed on March 20.
The workers had taken government advice by asking for access to the furlough scheme but their request was rejected.
Paisley and Renfrewshire South MP Mhairi Black and West Scotland MSP Neil Bibby, who is based in Paisley, sent letters to the university’s principal asking him to support the students.
In a statement, the university management said they were“pleased that following discussion and some administrative adjustments, its offer of hardship funding has now been accepted”.
“The swift measures we have put in place to provide specific hardship support to this group, as per our original proposal, will ensure that there continues to be no financial disadvantage to them as a result of the university’s campuses closing.”
One worker said after“five long weeks” the students were“delighted the university has reconsidered its position”.
“We are saddened that we had to endure such a challenging journey in order to achieve this outcome,”they added and thanked Dan Hutchison and sabbatical officers at the UWS students’union for their help.
They also thanked Bryan Simpson, from Unite, for his“invaluable”support and guidance. The worker added:
“We believe without his input, we would have a very different outcome. We will be forever grateful.
“Our case is just one of many faced by zero-hour contract employees during the recent months, highlighting the need to overhaul zero-hour contracts and provide all employees with equal rights and employment safeguards.”
Mr Simpson said:“Following positive negotiations between ourselves and senior management at UWS, we are pleased that an agreement has been reached that will ensure all casual workers in the catering team will receive financial support equivalent to 100 per cent of wages until at least July 31.
“We hope that this case acts as a wake-up call for the university on the precarity of the contracts being used for its casual workforce and that they look to offer minimum hour contracts to all staff in the new term, so that they know one week to the next what their baseline wages will be.”