UCL security staff to strike over pay and union recognition

Security staff at University College London (UCL) are to strike over their pay and union recognition.

These workers, who are employed via the contractor Bidvest Noonan, are demanding an increase in their hourly wages to £15, which their union, the Independent Workers’ Union of Great Britain (IWGB), states would see them paid the same nominal amount UCL guards received more than 20 years ago before these jobs were outsourced.

They are set to go on strike on 14 November.

According to the IWGB, this higher rate of pay would not adequately compensate for a gap in earnings linked to two decades of inflation.

Those employed via Bidvest Noonan have demanded their hourly pay be increased from £13 or £14 (depending on the worker) to £15.

“I am not able to pay my bills. The cost-of-living crisis has left me with my back against the wall and with no option but to demand a pay rise.”

– Farhana Uddin

This would be the same nominal amount that in-house security earned in 2000, but the union states that at least another £10 an hour would be required for the pay to be worth the same.

Farhana Uddin, a member of security staff at UCL and an IWGB member, said: “I am not able to pay my bills. The cost-of-living crisis has left me with my back against the wall and with no option but to demand a pay rise.”

She accused the institution of using “exploitative outsourcing to cut costs”, leaving workers such as her “paying the price”.

She said: “With the rising cost of living, many of us are struggling to make ends meet. We know staff in the past were paid much more than us [in real terms].”

The IWGB said that it represents about 3/4 of the approximately 200 security staff at UCL and that it expects all of its members will join the strike action when it begins.

Henry Chango Lopez, the IWGB’s general secretary, said: “Amid a cost-of-living crisis, security staff face another year of real-terms cuts to their incomes and many are struggling to make ends meet. UCL must pay its staff a dignified salary [and] recognise the IWGB.

“The workers are united, having voted unanimously to take strike action, and they are determined to win.

“UCL can end this dispute whenever it wants, by recognising the IWGB, paying its key workers the wages they have always deserved, and bringing them in-house.”

A UCL spokesperson said: “Our colleagues in security do vital jobs for UCL and we are committed to ensuring that our outsourced colleagues are rewarded fairly in line with our staff.

“Following positive and productive negotiations with our recognised trade union, Unison, we recently invested over £10m per year to harmonise pay and benefits for our outsourced colleagues and we now pay some of the best rates for these roles in the sector.”

They added that the staff in question were employed under the same terms and key conditions as in-house staff: “In 2021, we were officially recognised as a London living wage employer and have incorporated a minimum London living wage requirement into standard terms and conditions for our external suppliers.”