The campaign group Justice for Cleaners at Goldsmiths College can claim victory after a meeting of the Goldsmiths College, University of London Governing Council on Thursday, 20th September decided to bring the cleaning staff back in house.

A Statement from from the Justice for Cleaners campaign read:

“Very pleased to announce that Goldsmiths management have confirmed today that cleaning staff will be brought inhouse. This victory has come from the tireless struggle and organisational genius of the cleaners. On 28th of June of this year, cleaners organised themselves to attend the university council meeting to confront council members about their poor working terms and conditions. It was out of this act of collective determination that the Justice for Cleaners Campaign formed. Today, three months later, we went with cleaners to the the same council meeting to hear that they would be brought in-house. Solidarity and thoughtful collective organising among workers at every level of the university with students is the most effective way of changing the university. The university is a workplace, if you are not happy with how things are running change it through workplace politics. This stuff works!
We will continue to support our colleagues during this process, making sure proper transparency of decision-making is delivered and that cleaners are meaningfully consulted throughout. 

Hasta la victoria siempre!”

 

The full statement from Goldsmiths College states:

“Goldsmiths’ Governing Council has today approved plans to bring cleaning provision in-house, and confirmed steps to harmonise the terms and conditions of cleaners with other Goldsmiths staff.

This will ensure that cleaners at Goldsmiths benefit from increased annual leave allowance, access to a better pension provision, and maternity, paternity and adoption leave and pay in line with other Goldsmiths staff.

Furthermore, Council has agreed to increase the budgeted number of cleaning hours. This increased provision will give Goldsmiths flexibility to address some of the shift pattern issues that have arisen as a result of the recent restructuring of working arrangements.

Given the complexity involved in transitioning up to 100 cleaning staff into Goldsmiths, there will be a transition period of at least six months from 1 November 2018. During this period, intensive work will be undertaken to complete the TUPE legal process, to undertake appropriate consultation over changes to employment terms, to ensure payroll and employment records are handed over smoothly, to recruit in-house management and additional HR support, and to arrange supplies of materials and consumables. Goldsmiths understands that the process of insourcing such a large group of staff within comparable organisations has taken at least nine months, but SMT will be keen to ensure the process moves as quickly as possible, consistent with its duties to ensure a smooth handover for both the staff directly involved and the wider College.

Goldsmiths’ SMT will continue its discussions with cleaning staff and their UNISON representatives over these transitional arrangements and any residual issues relating to the recent shift pattern changes.”

https://twitter.com/cllralanhall/status/1042880236151603204

 

 

The Justice for Cleaners campaign are calling for donations to the hardship fund to help in the transition. The link is here

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