{"id":23344,"date":"2020-08-21T15:33:47","date_gmt":"2020-08-21T14:33:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=23344"},"modified":"2020-08-21T15:33:48","modified_gmt":"2020-08-21T14:33:48","slug":"victory-for-common-sense","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=23344","title":{"rendered":"‘Victory for common sense’"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The decision by the University of Sheffield to drop its plans to sack and reengage over 8,000 of its employees in a bid to cut costs has been hailed as \u00e2\u20ac\u0098a victory for common sense\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 by Unite on Thursday (August 20).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unite, which represents university employees in key technical and professional roles, spearheaded the campaign, with other higher education unions, to protect jobs when the proposals were unveiled last month.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unite said that the University\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s bosses panicked when they claimed they needed to make \u00c2\u0141100 million in savings over fears about a shortfall in students in the coming academic year, including the much valued students from China, as a result of the pandemic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unite urged the management to work with the trade unions to formulate its medium and long-term plans for the University\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s post-pandemic financial health.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unite regional officer Harriet Eisner said, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe news that the controversial \u00e2\u20ac\u0098fire and rehire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 plans by the University of Sheffield have been jettisoned is a victory for common sense, and the strong solidarity shown by our reps and members in the face of the panic-induced plans by the University.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bFor the University\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s 8,000 employees, there is massive relief that there is no longer a threat to \u00e2\u20ac\u0098fire and rehire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 on inferior terms and conditions,” she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bHowever, the toll on employees\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 mental health over the last month has been immense. Some have already left the University\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s employment under the voluntary redundancy scheme – would they have taken this course if they hadn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t felt the recent intense pressure?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bUnite maintains that the University\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s plan to \u00e2\u20ac\u0098fire and rehire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 was a panic reaction to a hole in its finances which was symptomatic of an institutional lack of long-term planning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt was also a callous disregard for the employees who make the University such an attractive place for students to study.
<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe University, which is fundamentally wealthy, needs to take a long hard look at its medium to long-term strategy. There was a built-in flaw in the University\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0098business model\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 which relied exclusively on the revenue from top fee-paying international students, especially those from China,” Eisner went on to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u00e2\u20ac\u015bAs we move forward, trade unions need to be fully involved in providing the necessary counterbalance to the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098we know best\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 attitude of the University\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s management. Unite is keen to work constructively with the management so the trauma of the last month never happens again.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Unite said that the University had been looking for staff to go down to four days-a- week, with no pay rises, no incremental pay rises and no promotions \u00e2\u20ac\u201c these proposals have now been abandoned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

By Shaun Noble<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The decision by the University of Sheffield to drop its plans to sack and reengage over 8,000 of its employees in a bid to cut costs has been hailed as \u00e2\u20ac\u0098a victory for common sense\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 by Unite on Thursday (August 20). Unite, which represents university employees in key technical and professional roles, spearheaded the campaign, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":23345,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1308,1],"tags":[1295,942],"wps_subtitle":"Unite hails victory as University of Sheffield drops plan \u00e2\u20ac\u0098to sack and rehire\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 8,000 staff on inferior pay","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23344"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=23344"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23344\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23349,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23344\/revisions\/23349"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/23345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=23344"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=23344"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=23344"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}