Things I have learned about UniTemps, "the university owned temporary staffing service" that in several places employs teaching staff (including PhD students acting as teaching assistants) who are barred from participating in strike action. #UCUstrike #UCUStrikesBack
UniTemps is a spin-off company born at the University of Warwick that claims to have paid almost £42 million in wages last year, with most of its activity concentrated through franchise branches in the UK (e.g. in Manchester, Nottingham, and London).
unitemps.com/about-us
unitemps.com/about-us
UniTemps is the main focus of 'Warwick University Enterprises Limited', which according to Company House filings grew its business by 20% in 2017-18 and generated a profit of £761,763 before tax. 
UniTemps/Warwick Enterprises' *after tax* profit last year was also £761,763, I think because of a charity status it holds (though my understanding of the accounts is amateur at best). Profits go back into expanding the business of hyper-casualisation.
Universities often describe UniTemps in terms that would make you think they were an integrated part of the university community, as an "onsite", "on campus" and "internal" recruitment agency. Just your local office for friendly flexible work!
But it appears that holiday, sick pay, and employment rights are reduced or do not apply for UniTemps workers, who again will frequently be doctoral students in the departments where they work. A two-tier system familiar from other outsourcing projects.
A 2015 motion at @UCU congress committed the union to "to campaign against TeachHigher, Unitemps and other outsourcing services/agencies that treat casual staff less favourably than those directly-employed"
ucu.org.uk/article/7523/B…
ucu.org.uk/article/7523/B…
@ucu I can't see much on UniTemps on the @ucu website, maybe because the disbanding of TeachHigher quelled protests and UniTemps wasn't as established then.
timeshighereducation.com/news/teachhigh…
timeshighereducation.com/news/teachhigh…
@ucu Some branches seem to be in negotiations to improve conditions for casualised folk, having publicised the effect of UniTemps on working conditions and the plausible impacts on student learning experience.
speakout.web.ucu.org.uk/nottingham/
speakout.web.ucu.org.uk/nottingham/
@ucu But there are clearly teachers employed by UniTemps who have been compelled to cross picket lines, presumably on pain of immediate dismissal, and UCU guidance confirms that this is 'third party' employment thus these colleagues cannot take strike action.
@ucu It also seems that outsourcing precarity to organisations like UniTemps will serve to obscure the scale of casualisation, because universities may not report these workers in statistics on how many staff are casualised, since technically they are employees of UniTemps'.
@ucu There was some controversy last year when UniTemps offered strike-breaking services, though they excused it as an error. But the effect of outsourced precarity is more insidious if the organisation is growing its share of university labour provision.
theboar.org/2018/02/wac-ma…
theboar.org/2018/02/wac-ma…
@ucu Because rather than merely opportunistic undermining of strikes for pay, pensions, and equality, they are becoming part of the university business model, where those who would previously have been hired directly (e.g. teaching assistants) get worse pay and conditions as standard.
@ucu My own ignorance of the situation probably says most about me. But isn't it striking that this outsourcing business has been growing at the same time that several campaigns to bring cleaning services in-house have been successful?
@ucu I wonder if @UCUAnti_Cas have any info that I may have overlooked. Especially important to know how many staff that would previously have been hired directly are now outsourced through UniTemps, and by what levels this has grown in recent years.
If no info, surely FOI time?
If no info, surely FOI time?
@ucu @UCUAnti_Cas Postscript on holiday pay. I know that other outsourced staff (e.g. in catering) are forced to take university closure days as holiday, radically cutting their entitlement. While the rest of us get closure days in addition to formal allowance. Also true for UniTemps employees?
