UK: Outsourced workers won major victory at London University
Outsourced staff at London's School of African and Oriental Studies (SOAS) have achieved a major victory, winning a ten year campaign for better working conditions and job security. The university announced that all 120 agency staff currently outsourced would be brought in-house and given the same workers rights as existing SOAS academic and non-academic staff, including pensions, sick pay and holiday pay. The agreement covers staff in a number of roles including catering, conferences and events, security, reception and post room workers. The victory comes after workers and students occupied a part of the university for two weeks in June after redundancies of catering staff were announced; the university backed down. However, they've been fighting years: outsourced staff at SOAS first started campaigning for better rights 11 years ago in 2006 when cleaners at the university established the 'Justice for Cleaners' campaign...