The Living
Wage/Anti-casualisation campaign group at the University of Nottingham hosted
the event Nottingham
– Living Wage City? Living Wage University? on Tuesday, 13 June. It
brought together a number of positive examples of Living Wage employers from
Nottingham as well as illustrated the hardship suffered by people on less than
the minimum wage, people on casual teaching contracts or fixed-term research
contracts.
Cleaners at
Nottingham University are one of the lowest paid groups of staff members. In
this blog post, the address to the event by Sonja, a cleaner at the University,
is reprinted. We have altered her name for purposes of anonymity.
Bringing together speakers from trade unions,
employers and those working for less than the Living Wage from across
Nottingham, this event on Tuesday, 13 June was part of the Living
Wage/Anti-casualisation campaign at the
University of Nottingham. The purpose of the meeting was twofold. First, we
celebrated a number of Living Wage employers in Nottingham, setting a good example
for others to follow. Second, it was highlighted that the University of
Nottingham is still not paying all members of staff a Living Wage despite of
year on year multi-million pounds of surplus. In this respect, we launched our
booklet Living close to the edge:Confronting Insecurity and Low Pay at the University of Nottingham, which
compiles anonymised statements by University of Nottingham staff members
talking about their hardship resulting from low pay and casualised working
conditions.
The Living Wage is an hourly rate, currently £8.45
outside London, set independently and updated annually in November by the Living Wage Foundation.
The
annual Congress of the University and College Union (UCU) met in Brighton from
26 to 29 May to assess the situation of Further and Higher Education in the UK.
Since 2010 and the first Conservative-led government, Further and Higher
Education have come under significant pressure. Against the background of the
global financial crisis, salaries have fallen in real terms, the workforce has
become increasingly casualised, moves towards privatisation have been
facilitated and tuition fees have been increased to £9000 per year. And yet,
the Labour Party manifesto for the general elections on 8 June 2017 offers a
clear alternative. In this blog post, I will reflect on this possibility
against the background of discussions at the UCU Congress.
