Outsourcing companies frequently compete to win public contracts by reducing costs: it's a race to the bottom on the pay, terms, and conditions for their workers. This has a knock-on effect for services: for instance, hospital infections have increased under outsourced cleaning services. In its Make Work Pay plan the government committed to: 1. Bring about the biggest wave of insourcing of public services in a generation. 2. Introduce a strengthened two-tier workforce code to reduce differences in the wages of workers doing similar jobs. 3. Undertake procurement reform to drive up employment standards across the economy. As a package, these policies will have a significant positive impact on the employment terms and conditions of the workers delivering our public services – and everyone who relies on them. They will also deliver greater value for taxpayers by reducing inefficiencies, removing private profit, and increasing accountability. Minister Ward has committed to driving forward an ambitious agenda towards insourcing and, where the outsourcing of public services is deemed to be in the public interest, ensuring decent work for outsourced workers. Union access, recognition, and collective bargaining are often missing in outsourced services, leading to further attacks on working conditions. The proposed new Procurement Bill will be crucial to addressing these gaps and delivering decent work across our public services. To succeed for workers and service users, this agenda needs widespread public support. Please sign the official record of support for insourcing today.

Support staff across Saint Ralph Sherwin and Our Lady Of Lourdes Catholic Multi-Academy Trust are essential to the safety, learning and development of children in the Nottinghamshire Diocese.  They go above and beyond to ensure pupils are supported and secure in their schools. They take pride in their work and their expertise, but have made the difficult decision to strike to protect their pupils, their livelihoods and the schools they hold so dear. Workers have overwhelmingly rejected the insulting proposals that could slash their wages by up to 25%. If they go ahead as planned, they feel that the schools would no longer be the safe welcoming environments they have all worked so hard to foster. 94% and 98% of UNISON members that voted in their Trust specific ballot voted to strike and the first dates were held on 24th and 25th March making their voices heard and proving that schools can't run without them.  Following successful peaceful protests at both Trust headquarters over the Easter Break, further strike dates for April and May have been announced.

Removing this essential service will create new barriers to learning, participation, and employment at the college, undermining the ability of many to continue their courses or sustain their roles. We call on Milton Keynes College to halt the closure plans and work with staff, students, UNISON, and the wider community to find a fair, sustainable alternative that protects access to childcare.   UNISON will keep in touch as the campaign develops

Northern Trains is becoming part of a publicly owned Great British Railways, which is good news for passengers and rail workers.  But many rail workers are being left out of Great British Railways because they are outsourced to private companies.  Outsourcing companies cut costs to boost profits, resulting in worse pay and conditions for staff and a worse service for passengers. Northern Trains currently outsources station staff, cleaners and security guards to Carlisle, ISS and Amulet.  Carlisle is owned by the Tory donor and tax exile Lord Ashcroft and its treatment of staff is typical of the worst of outsourcing firms. ·         Imposing low pay: RMT members at Carlisle have been in a long-running dispute because the company won’t negotiate their pay, choosing to impose the minimum possible pay rates it can get away with. Our members have been forced to take industrial action in the form of strikes and refusing to scan tickets to try to get a negotiated pay rise.  ·         Bullying staff for taking legal strike action: Since the dispute began, Carlisle managers have tried to bully and intimidate our members into submission. Carlisle keep many of our members on zero hours contracts and threaten to cut their shifts or their holiday if our members take legal strike action.  ·         Passing the buck: Carlisle and Northern keep passing the buck between them, each blaming the other for the dispute, while hoping our members will be starved into giving up.  This treatment brings shame on Northern Trains.

Reform UK have pledged to introduce a Great Repeal Bill to remove the Employment Rights Act 2025 and the Renters’ Rights Act 2025. Unions, workers, and renters have long campaigned for these essential new rights. Reform are threatening to snatch them away. They have also pledged to repeal the Equality Act 2010, the law that stops you from being discriminated against at work. With these plans, Reform wants to rig the system in favour of their corporate backers. Every ‘regulation’ they hate are hard fought for rights that give working people a voice and protect us at work. Axing workers’ and renters’ rights won’t cut our bills or increase our pay. It would slash standards and make us all worse off. Our message to Reform - and to every parliamentarian - is simple: commit now to opposing the Great Repeal Bill.

These proposed cuts mean people losing their livelihoods in a higher education sector already facing a jobs crisis, where alternative employment is scarce and careers built over many years can be destroyed overnight. For students, the consequences are overcrowded classes, delayed feedback, reduced support, and mounting pressure on remaining staff. The closure of Southend would also be a devastating loss for students, local communities, and access to higher education in the region. All of this undermines the value of an Essex degree, and damages the university’s reputation. Essex is a public institution with a public mission. Its future should not be decided without accountability, evidence, or meaningful negotiation. We call on University of Essex senior management and Council to: • Stop compulsory redundancies at all campuses • Halt the closure of the Southend campus • Return to meaningful negotiations with staff and their unions   The more people who sign this petition, the clearer it becomes that Essex staff are not standing alone — and that management must come back to the table.

Workers have called for formal union recognition so staff can negotiate pay, terms and working conditions collectively with Second Step management. While meetings have been productive, recognition has yet to be granted, leaving workers without a meaningful, organised voice in decisions that directly affect their livelihoods and the quality of services provided. We call on Second Step to recognise our union formally, commit to fair and inflation-reflective pay, and address the widening pay gap between Second Step roles and equivalent NHS and AWP positions. Fair pay and fair representation are essential not only for staff, but for the stability and future of the services our communities rely on. When workers are respected, services are stronger. We would like to highlight Kelvin Blake's conflicting position; on one hand, he is a councillor representing constituents who are struggling to buy food and access housing as their pay is not meeting the rate of inflation, and on the other hand he is the Chair of the Board of Second Step and his silence is deafening. As a Labour councillor his government have bought in the Employment Rights Bill – which among other things provides improved facility time for union reps and lifts many constraints on union activity – and yet Kelvin is silent about the industrial action happening in his constituency. This silence is palpable as Union reps struggle to engage with Second Step leadership in meaningful negotiations. We say to Kelvin: many of us are your constituents and we are asking you to make a statement in support of our campaign. This would be particularly impactful in your position as Chair of the Board. Stand with Second Step workers and support fair pay, fair conditions and union recognition. Sign to show your solidarity with our campaign and to support our message to Kelvin.  

Wirral Evolutions requires high qualifications of staff to protect the quality, safety, and sustainability of support for vulnerable people now and in the future. Fair, equal pay ensures skilled professionals are valued, retained, and able to deliver the high-quality service that clients depend on.

For almost 50 young workers, in such a demanding industry and facing the bleakest outlook they’ve faced in years, to take decisive strike action in this way is profoundly brave and unprecedented. Support them in their effort to improve their workplace in order to make it workable and liveable while we all struggle through the depths of an affordability crisis. 

Transport for Greater Manchester, West Midlands Combined Authority and West Yorkshire Combined Authority have signed up to the ‘Passenger Transport Forum’ bargaining agreement with UNISON and Unite. The employers turn up to meetings but refuse to negotiate over pay, claiming they are ‘tied’ to what is agreed by other employers in a separate bargaining unit. The workers have been offered the latest in a long line of real-terms pay cuts instead of a pay rise that was due back in April. Employees of local authorities and fire and rescue services can negotiate their pay, but this right is being denied to transport workers, who have been left with no alternative to strike action. These workers are employed in a wide variety of roles from sometimes challenging customer facing roles in transport interchanges, those with safety critical responsibilities such as engineers, through to those planning routes and providing customer information. All our members are skilled and committed to providing the best for the travelling public of these areas ensuring things run smoothly now and that transport networks are fit for purpose far into the future. To tackle the cost-of-living crisis and climate breakdown we need affordable, reliable, safe and convenient public transport. That can only be delivered by workers on decent pay and whose right to bargain is respected. Behind the three employers stand the three regional Mayors of Greater Manchester, the West Midlands and West Yorkshire – Andy Burnham, Richard Parker and Tracy Brabin. They all say they want improved public transport. They all say they support workers’ rights to negotiate their pay and conditions through their unions.

UCU members have been standing up against the continual cutting and restructuring of the last several years which has significantly damaged the University’s international standing, the quality of education of our students, and staff’s collective mental health. The pace of change is both unnecessary for achieving management’s stated goals of making the University financially stable and unsustainable. Staff cannot be expected to continue to carry out ever-increasing workloads.  It is also important because aggressive union-busting tactics such as what Sheffield’s management are proposing threaten all workers' ability to stand up to unjustified cuts and unjust management actions, now and in the future. An attack on one is an attack on all.  Please sign our petition and, if you can, contribute £5 (or more if you can!) to our fighting fund to help us ensure our members are supported through the holiday season and the months ahead.

Edinburgh Napier University has moved forward with up to 70 redundancies relating to academic and academic related staff, which the Educational Institute of Scotland believe will have an adverse impact on the academic quality and coverage which may have a negative impact on the quality of education students would receive. The Staff cuts would also place additional burdens on an already stretched workforce at Edinburgh Napier University.   The EIS University Lecturers Association condemns the failure of the university to provide a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies. Management at ENU have refused to take this critical step, instead continuing with plans that place dedicated, long serving and hard-working staff at risk. These job cuts are short-sighted and will only increase the workload on remaining staff, leading to a decline in course provision and a diminished student experience. The EIS reiterates its call for the university to halt their cuts agenda and prioritise the well-being of their staff and students using the financial reserves that both universities have stashed away. We are also aware that the university are not, according to their published finances, in financial crisis. They have in fact got a very healthy reserve. We also do not believe that the process has been transparent, fair, or proper.