Sheffield Hallam University staff protest over delayed pay rise

The Star, Sheffield

Protestors gathered at Sheffield Hallam University on November 18 over a delayed pay rise.

Transcript

00:00When do we want it? Now!

00:02What do we want? Fair pay!

00:04When do we want it? Now!

00:06So we're here today because the University have said

00:08that they're going to defer workers' pay

00:10for 11 months and not back-date it.

00:13That was a statement made in September

00:15to a lot of lower-paid workers

00:17and all workers across the University.

00:19What this equates to in our minds is wage theft

00:21and so for most of our workers

00:23that means they're going to be losing roughly £1,000

00:25or more this year

00:27if the University go ahead with deferring

00:29and no back-dating.

00:31And what are you demanding today?

00:33So we're demanding obviously that the University

00:35implement whatever pay award is agreed

00:37because we've not even had an opportunity to ballot our members

00:39on the pay award that was offered

00:41and that they back-date

00:43the pay award immediately

00:45so that they don't pinch from workers' pockets

00:47in order to pay for their own

00:49financial mismanagement.

00:51And obviously it's graduation today, why did you choose

00:53today of all days?

00:55So I'm here to talk to students

00:57and tell them about the issue that's affecting people

00:59they see day in, day out.

01:01So why are you here today?

01:03So my name's Dan Grace,

01:05I'm a Communications Officer

01:07for Sheffield Howard Unison.

01:09We're here today with our members,

01:11with GMB, with UCU

01:13and Unite as well

01:15to tell the University

01:17that we're not happy over their decision

01:19to defer the latest pay award

01:21and then to not back-date that pay award.

01:23And what demands

01:25are you setting out today?

01:27Well, in the first place we would like

01:29that pay award to be implemented

01:31as soon as possible.

01:33When it is implemented it needs to be

01:35back-dated as it has been in every previous year.

01:37We also,

01:39our second key demand is

01:41for a union voice

01:43when it comes to the setting of budgets

01:45and that kind of thing.

01:47There have been some poor decisions

01:49made at Sheffield Haven recently

01:51and we feel that

01:53with closer union involvement

01:55we might have been able to avoid some of that.

01:57So what we really want to do is

01:59we want to get Haven back on track

02:01and we want to help sort things out here.

02:03And today is quite a busy day

02:05with graduations and everything.

02:07Why did you choose today to come out?

02:09Well,

02:11I mean, really, because it's a busy day

02:13we want to be visible, we want our members

02:15to see us, but we also want

02:17members of the public to see us,

02:19to see the diversity here to see us

02:21so we can explain to them the situation

02:23so we can make the case

02:25for ensuring that our members get

02:27the pay award that they deserve

02:29and that unions should be more closely involved

02:31in setting up the budgets like we discussed

02:33and mentioned previously.

02:35Is there anything else that you wanted to add?

02:37I don't think so.

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