People and Money

In response to the current People and Money crisis, UCU Edinburgh will be submitting the following Collective Grivance to UoE Management.

Collective Grievance 

To Whom it May Concern, 

We, the University and College Union at the University of Edinburgh, are hereby raising collective grievance about the detrimental effect People & Money has had and is still having on some of our members. 

We seek resolution about the following issues: 

  • Overdue salary/wages/stipend payments. 

  • Overdue expenses payments. 

  • Lack of availability of normal procurement channels. 

  • Financial strain on staff due to having to buy teaching and lab material as well as office supplies out of pocket. 

  • Delays in research due to lack of supplies/difficulty accessing grant money. 

  • Risk to mental and physical health of staff due to financial hardship caused by overdue payments. 

  • Unlawful delays in supplying Particulars of Employment by the first day of employment, delays in on boarding. 

  • Delays in providing reasonable adjustments to disabled staff due to inability to procure suitable IT equipment.  

  • EUSA’s student Hardship Fund overburdened with PG students whose stipend is overdue and/or PhD students who are lacking their staff wages. 

  • Overdue payments and overdue Particulars of Employment disproportionally impact GH and early career staff, which is in breach of the Collective Agreement between UCUE and the University of Edinburgh. https://www.ed.ac.uk/sites/default/files/atoms/files/ue_ucu_joint_statement_agreed_26_march_2019.pdf   

 

We are aware that HR and Finance staff are working very hard on resolving the backlog and that the implementation P&M has impacted those teams very badly as well. We are, however, representing members who are experiencing severe hardship and stress caused by not receiving their salaries/wages/stipends and/or having to pay for materials themselves so they can still do their work. The responsibility to pay staff in a timely fashion in full lies with the employer.  

 

Wherefore, we seek the following outcome: 

  • Full payment of salaries/expenses by the end of November 2022 at the latest. 

  • Commitment to paying staff on time and if a payment is missed an emergency payment of the full sum to be made with 48h of the error being brought to the university’s attention.  

  • Refunds given for any expenses accrued as a result of non-payment of salary/expenses, e.g. credit card interest/overdraft fees.  

  • Extension of fixed-term contracts for any employees whose work was negatively impacted/delayed. 

  • Commitment to supplying every staff member with their Particulars of Employment on the first day of employment at the latest. 

  • Additional Leave entitlement (and carryover) for staff that had to do unpaid overwork due to P&M including but not limited to: admins, HR, Finance. 

  • A one-off flat payment to all staff and student workers as recognition of the extra work and hardship incurred. 

You can be part of this by emailing ucu@ed.ac.uk