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Seminar: Outsourcing and Contract Procurement
Tue 28 Feb 2012
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Universities 'using short-sighted employment practices'
Thu 22 Apr 2010
Universities are using short-sighted employment practices and ignoring guidelines issued to halt the abuse of short-term contracts, according to the University and College Union (UCU).
General secretary Sally Hunt said only the catering and hotel sector employs a larger percentage of temporary staff than education.
This, she added, could persuade some of the best brains in Britain to leave the education sector or even move abroad to find work.
Ms Hunt was speaking after the UCU won a legal battle with Lancaster University, after the establishment did not properly consult 30 members of staff regarding dismissals.
The Employment Tribunal ruled in favour of the UCU, stating that when 20 or more people are to be made redundant, the university must consult with the union.
Ms Hunt said universities cannot get rid of staff by waiting for their fixed-term contracts to expire.
Stephen Hart, a solicitor in Winckworth Sherwood's education law practice, commented: "The expiry of a fixed-term contract is a lawful termination of the employment relationship. It is also a redundancy situation: the University's requirement for a particular type of lecturer to do a particular type of work has either ceased or diminished. In this case, therefore, Lancaster University should have consulted with employee representatives where it was proposing to allow 20 or more such contracts to expire.
"Universities which are facing the need to reduce staff numbers may rely upon not renewing fixed-term contracts as part of a general redundancy exercise. However, they should not single out fixed-term lecturers as an easy option: to do so runs the risk of discriminating against them unlawfully on the grounds of their fixed-term status."
This coincides with UCU members from the University of Westminster and University College London voting in favour of strike action in an attempt to save jobs.
