Anti-Casualisation

Anti-Casualisation Subcommittee

Anti-cas subcommittee coordinates campaigning on improving the working conditions of members on fixed term, fractional, and/or hourly paid contracts.  More broadly it seeks to combat the increasing drive of academia towards more reliance on casualised labour. The subcommittee is chaired by our Anti-Casualisation Officers.

Key Issues

These include:

  • staff employed on fixed term contracts

  • staff doing pro rata/informal work or PhD students working as tutors

  • improving job conditions for guaranteed hours/fixed term contract staff.

  • inconsistent work

  • access to pensions

  • ensuring adherence to the 2019 Collective Agreement between UCUE and our employer on guaranteed hours and fixed-term academic staff

Anti-Casualisation Officers

Anti-Casualisation Officers are elected members of branch committee of UCU Edinburgh with a specific remit to represent casualised members who work under precarious conditions. Current officers are listed under Officers and Committee and can be contacted via ucu@ed.ac.uk

Campaigning and Success

We aim to address issues faced by casualised workers and improve job security for staff. Anti-Cas Officers sit on committees with university management such as the Joint Consultative & Negotiating Committee where we zealously represent the interests of UCU members. Some of things that UCU Edinburgh have recently being doing for casualised staff include: 

  • Addressing late pay for casualised staff, particularly due to People & Money

  • Ensuring that staff receive pay for all training

  • Addressing late reimbursement for expenses, particularly due to People & Money

  • Addressing staff being paid for work in vouchers, not money

  • Preventing junior staff from being overlooked in the Contribution Reward Scheme

  • Formalising a ban on unpaid teaching being a part of scholarships

  • Helping fixed term contract staff receive open ended contracts after 4 years

  • Analysing data from the university about the extent of casualisation

  • Raising complaints with management about pay inequality for lab demonstrators

In 2019 we signed a Collective Agreement with the University of Edinburgh regarding employment of guaranteed minimum hours teaching staff and fixed-term academic staff. Read it and related Joint Statements on the UoE website.

Get Involved

Currently, we need your help with anti-casualisation work. One way you could do this would be to serve as an Anti-Cas Officer on the branch committee. This requires approximately 7 hours of work per week, which can be paid facility time. You could also sit on the upcoming Anti-Cas sub-committee. If you think you would be interested in either of these, please get in touch with Jonny Dennis, Anti-Cas Officer (Jonathan.Dennis@ed.ac.uk), or contact UCU Edinburgh (ucu@ed.ac.uk).