UCLan has stated its intention to move from a Defined Benefit Pension Scheme (LGPS) to a Defined Contribution (DC) Pension Scheme for new starters in Professional Services, there are no proposals to change the pension arrangements for our academic colleagues. We believe this is wrong because: • The LGPS rules require UCLan to offer LGPS membership to their employees, UCLan intend to get around this rule by employing new starters in a separate company. • The change will lead to a two-tier workforce in pensions, with new starters in Professional Services being offered inferior and less cost-effective pensions. • The contribution rates will be lower than those for LGPS and TPS (the main scheme for our academic colleagues). • DC schemes pay out less than DB schemes such as LGPS and TPS meaning staff doing exactly the same job will come out with much lower pensions in the future. • The change will affect younger, lower-paid and women members of staff disproportionately. • Access to the pension scheme is part of the remuneration package offering an inferior pension scheme to new starters with lower employer contribution rates is potentially discriminatory yet the university has not conducted an equality impact assessment. • In the short term, the cost of setting up inferior pension arrangements could reduce any potential savings to UCLan. At a time of limited recruitment, the savings they make from this change will be negligible. • The number of pensioners living in poverty in the UK is the worst in Europe, for staff to avoid pensioner poverty they need a decent workplace pension to supplement the very low state pension. • If more employers like UCLan close membership of the scheme to new starters this could lead to serious cash flow problems for LGPS funds, with a shortfall in contributions at the same time as the number of pensioners increase. • UCLAN is signed up to the “Preston Model” of Community Wealth Building within Preston and the wider Lancashire area. By withdrawing access to the LGPS the university will be instrumental in increasing pensioner poverty in the area in the years to come, how does this fit with the Preston model? We are calling on UCLAN to withdraw this decision and ensure that all staff who work for them get the decent pension which they rightly deserve. #Fight4FairPensions

Over the past year, we have successfully adapted to remote working made necessary by the pandemic. We have worked hard to ensure the work of the University has continued, in a safe and effective way. We have made sure systems still run, research is able to continue, and students are still able to have the best experience possible. Feedback from University management has rightly recognised this: "We can all feel proud of the quality of education that we have been able to maintain in the most difficult of circumstances. [It] is a testament to your dedication, and to the supportive environment that you have all helped to create." "Indeed, one of the more positive lessons of the pandemic is that we can do some pretty fabulous things online." (Emails to all staff from Head of College of Social Sciences) We have done all this from home. While the COVID-19 crisis has brought many challenges, there have also been opportunities. Being able to work from home has meant a better work-life balance, and more inclusive ways of working for disabled staff and those with caring responsibilities - often met by women. We are concerned that one of the few positive points of the COVID-19 pandemic - our ability to work flexibly and remotely, improving our work-life balance and our productivity - will be lost as we begin to emerge from lockdown. We ask the University to make sure this does not happen, and staff at all levels are enabled to keep working well. We Need to Keep Working Safely As the most recent lockdown begins to lift, we want to ensure we are able to keep these flexible working arrangements, where they work for us. This means ensuring that all those who want to continue to work from home, and for whom it is practical and accessible to do so, are able to keep the flexibility they have been able to work with, without having to go through onerous formal application processes. This also means ensuring disabled, chronically ill and neurodivergent staff have the right adjustments in place both at home and on campus, right from the beginning of their employment, to enable them to work safely, productively and flexibly. We ask the University to work with UCU, Unison, Unite and GMB to ensure all staff are able to work in ways that work for them, including having the right adjustments in place to enable us to work flexibly. The Benefits of Remote and Flexible Working It has been argued by organisations such as the Chartered Management Institute that home working, and other flexible working arrangements, can be a part of closing gender and disability pay and leadership gaps, as well as improving the attraction, retention, progression, and well-being of employees. The University of Birmingham’s own research into increased flexible working during COVID-19, in partnership with the University of Kent, found that most respondents noted they would prefer to work more flexibly in the future (including 52% of all parents and 66% of non-parents), after benefitting from a better work-life balance, increased productivity and improved wellbeing during lockdown. The University's Business School has also written about some of the benefits of home working, flexible working and blended approaches. Research from Cardiff University and the University of Southampton found that 70% of employees surveyed found their productivity either stayed the same or increased while they were working from home. The Government itself has argued flexible working - including flexi-time and home working - should be normalised, stating it would ‘boost productivity and particularly help women and those outside major cities’. By enabling all staff to continue working in ways that work for them, the University can make meaningful progress on some of its targets around dismantling structural barriers faced by groups within the University, as part of its 2021-24 Equality, Diversity and Inclusion scheme. This includes demonstrating the University’s commitment to being a “Disability Confident” employer, by ensuring the benefits of remote and flexible working for disabled people are not lost; and making it easier for those with caring responsibilities to balance these with their work. Home working can also contribute positively to the UoB Sustainable Travel Plan by reducing travel to campus and surrounding areas, and address the significant issues that staff have faced with parking on campus. Trust us to Work Well An earlier email from the chairs and co-chairs of the University’s staff networks stated that there was clear evidence of ‘a desire for global culture change that embeds a transparent trusted approach in relationships between staff and leaders.’ We ask the University of Birmingham to trust staff, who have consistently demonstrated their ability to adapt and deliver to a high standard, given the right support. We ask the University of Birmingham to demonstrate its worth as an employer that trusts and empowers its staff: trust us to work flexibly, in ways that work for us, and that benefit everyone.

Over a year into the COVID-19 pandemic, thousands of Stoke care workers have been, and continue to be, financially penalised for doing the right thing and protecting the vulnerable people they care for.   Proper sick pay is known to prevent the spread of infections to service users and the wider community. Care workers need the assurance that they will not be financially penalised when they need to self-isolate.   In Stoke, the majority of care workers who have spoken to UNISON have reported that instead of receiving their normal pay in line with Government guidance, they are having to survive on SSP at £96 per week, use annual leave, or in some cases get nothing at all. This is despite care employers receiving millions in public funds and being instructed to use them to pay self-isolating care workers their normal wages.

Low-paid workers at Cumberland Infirmary are in urgent need of our support. These porters, cleaners, switchboard and catering staff are outsourced to Mitie and have worked 24/7 throughout the pandemic to keep staff and patients safe. But while Mitie boasts it is making massive profits from the Covid crisis, it continues to pay these workers less than their NHS colleagues doing the same jobs. This is despite North Cumbria Integrated NHS Foundation Trust saying it handed over a "substantial sum" for them to be paid NHS rates when the contract was privatised in 2010. The 150 workers, who belong to UNISON and the GMB, have been on strike for two days. Instead of investigating where their missing wages went, health bosses and Mitie chose to squabble over who's responsible for paying the workers what they're owed. Sadly, Mitie still isn’t listening. We think that an even better way to get the Managing Director’s attention is to flood his inbox with emails from all of us. Can you take a few minutes to email Phil Bentley? It’s easy, you just need to add your details and press send. This is not what our members want. They don’t want to strike, especially not in the middle of a global pandemic. Health bosses and Mitie could have averted the strike by agreeing to pay the workers the correct rate for the job. The rate the Trust said they'd be paid when the contract was privatised in 2010. We know who’s side we’re on.

Tracking what happens to women’s pay is vital to building a fairer future and holding employers to account. Businesses have to report on a wide range of regulations/requirements - but gender pay gap reporting was the only one suspended last year. That can’t be right. Equality isn’t a nice value to have — it is essential. Especially in a time of crisis. Decades of progress in gender equality is being undone in a matter of months. Women have faced greater economic hardship through this pandemic, disproportionately losing jobs and income. Low paid women, black and minority ethnic (BME) women, disabled women and working mums are experiencing some of the most acute impacts. Women that were already at greater risk of being treated unfairly at work. Analysis by the TUC unearthed a staggering 35% pay gap for disabled women double that of the average gender pay gap, and that BME women are overrepresented in low paid, insecure jobs compared to white women and men. Join Grazia, Mother Pukka and the TUC as we call on Liz Truss MP, to maintain the requirement for larger employers to report on their gender pay gap in 2021 and to urgently introduce legislation requiring employers to report on ethnicity and disability pay gaps. We need you to show up for equal pay. Because equality isn’t a nice to have, it is fundamental. https://mcusercontent.com/ebd004a8047907dc47d269fd1/images/cb0315e4-99a5-4bb4-8d6d-0cfcd180bd0a.png

Key workers are getting this country through the pandemic. They headed out to work when the rest of the country stayed at home – putting themselves and their families at risk. It’s time to end the low pay and insecure work that leave many of these workers struggling, and make sure every key worker gets a payrise. The coronavirus crisis demonstrated how much we all owe to all our key workers - healthcare staff, care workers, retail and delivery workers, public transport workers, teachers and support staff, cleaners, energy workers and so many others. Can you write to your MP and invite them to the meeting? They've already been invited by a local leader, but need to know how many of us support this campaign. Every message makes a difference.

Key workers are getting this country through the pandemic. They headed out to work when the rest of the country stayed at home – putting themselves and their families at risk. It’s time to end the low pay and insecure work that leave many of these workers struggling, and make sure every key worker gets a payrise. The coronavirus crisis demonstrated how much we all owe to all our key workers - healthcare staff, care workers, retail and delivery workers, public transport workers, teachers and support staff, cleaners, energy workers and so many others. Can you write to your MP and invite them to the meeting? They've already been invited by a local leader, but need to know how many of us support this campaign. Every message makes a difference.

Key workers are getting this country through the pandemic. They headed out to work when the rest of the country stayed at home – putting themselves and their families at risk. It’s time to end the low pay and insecure work that leave many of these workers struggling, and make sure every key worker gets a payrise. The coronavirus crisis demonstrated how much we all owe to all our key workers - healthcare staff, care workers, retail and delivery workers, public transport workers, teachers and support staff, cleaners, energy workers and so many others. Can you write to your MP and invite them to the meeting? They've already been invited by a local leader, but need to know how many of us support this campaign. Every message makes a difference.

Key workers are getting this country through the pandemic. They headed out to work when the rest of the country stayed at home – putting themselves and their families at risk. It’s time to end the low pay and insecure work that leave many of these workers struggling, and make sure every key worker gets a payrise. The coronavirus crisis demonstrated how much we all owe to all our key workers - healthcare staff, care workers, retail and delivery workers, public transport workers, teachers and support staff, cleaners, energy workers and so many others. Can you write to your MP and invite them to the meeting? They've already been invited by a local leader, but need to know how many of us support this campaign. Every message makes a difference.

Key workers are getting this country through the pandemic. They headed out to work when the rest of the country stayed at home – putting themselves and their families at risk. It’s time to end the low pay and insecure work that leave many of these workers struggling, and make sure every key worker gets a payrise. The coronavirus crisis demonstrated how much we all owe to all our key workers - healthcare staff, care workers, retail and delivery workers, public transport workers, teachers and support staff, cleaners, energy workers and so many others. Can you write to your MP and invite them to the meeting? They've already been invited by a local leader, but need to know how many of us support this campaign. Every message makes a difference.

Key workers are getting this country through the pandemic. They headed out to work when the rest of the country stayed at home – putting themselves and their families at risk. It’s time to end the low pay and insecure work that leave many of these workers struggling, and make sure every key worker gets a payrise. The coronavirus crisis demonstrated how much we all owe to all our key workers - healthcare staff, care workers, retail and delivery workers, public transport workers, teachers and support staff, cleaners, energy workers and so many others. Can you write to your MP and invite them to the meeting? They've already been invited by a local leader, but need to know how many of us support this campaign. Every message makes a difference.

Key workers are getting this country through the pandemic. They headed out to work when the rest of the country stayed at home – putting themselves and their families at risk. It’s time to end the low pay and insecure work that leave many of these workers struggling, and make sure every key worker gets a payrise. The coronavirus crisis demonstrated how much we all owe to all our key workers - healthcare staff, care workers, retail and delivery workers, public transport workers, teachers and support staff, cleaners, energy workers and so many others. Can you write to your MP and invite them to the meeting? They've already been invited by a local leader, but need to know how many of us support this campaign. Every message makes a difference.