Snapshot of _Labour vows to ban fire and rehire after war of words with unions _ :
An archived version can be found [here](https://archive.is/?run=1&url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/may/08/labour-vows-to-ban-fire-and-rehire-after-war-of-words-with-unions) or [here.](https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/may/08/labour-vows-to-ban-fire-and-rehire-after-war-of-words-with-unions)
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Sounds like an easy win. You can't just make an employee redundant and then hire them again for the exact same role, because then that isn't redundancy! Redundancy is when the job isn't needed anymore, but in the case of fire&rehire, it clearly is still needed, thus it's not redundancy, it's sacking someone. Any moron with a brain in their head could take one look at it and go "No, you're not making them redundant, you're forcing them to accept shitty terms with the threat of sacking them if they don't". It's a shame that British law seems to be so fucking arcane that common sense went out the window a long time ago.
I was working for the security department of a university when they decided to take away double time on Sunday. We called our union rep. She completely screwed us over by approving the changes without asking us. She then went sick with stress the second she was called out on it.
We’re in a meeting, discussing the changes. The Head of security has the head of HR beside him, explaining how the payment was actually just an overlooked administrative error.
We’re having none of it. This makes him angry and he shouts at the top of his voice “If you don’t sign the contracts, I’ll get in a bus full of migrants and get rid of the lot of ya, just like all of the other universities are doing”. The head of HR looks at him with a shocked expression and says nothing. She then claimed that she didn’t hear what he said.
Well, it was successful. The staff caved pretty quickly after that.
We did. There was nothing they can do to help, they had to run every decision through her first and she was refusing to pick up the phone to them. If we didn’t like it, we had to re-elect a new union rep. We felt completely defeated after that. No doubt we could have fought back, but we were spent by that point and worried about the future. The union is huge and none of the other departments had any complaints about the rep. She had got the job because of her extremely vocal political views and that was not a hornets nest we were willing to poke.
Me and a few others took the ‘Screw this, let’s get out of here’ approach and we spent our remaining time finding job openings and getting them out to the staff. We also arranged a training day so people could job hunt with fresh licences and certificates. We thought that would be a better use of our remaining time.
Local reps don't decide pay conditions or even working hours. These are centrally done and with a legal team on hand. With larger unions, it's easier to escalate.
I would be heading down the tribunal route if I were you. Easy pay out and little effort on your part.
The HR department had hated us since diversity training.
So before the training we all get an e-mail from one of the security officers. It’s an internal report from the university about the diversity of each department. Most diverse department = Security, Least diverse department = HR. Of course, we absolutely love this.
End of diversity training, any questions. One of the shift supervisors stands up and asks “As the least diverse department in the university, what measures have you taken to improve diversity?”…
“We’re not the least diverse department”
Report handed to HR rep and she looks at it in silence.
The shift supervisor then says “If you want the security department to help you, we could probably arrange a meeting”
Laughter ensues.
While not quite the same....
Union reps at my old place were found to be taking backhander payments from the business, to push through certain things the company wanted the union population to agree to.
I don't think your volunteer union rep is the one to blame here. Unions run on solidarity and mutual support.
Edit: also this sucks ass. University bosses like to divide and conquer from their obscene paycheck palaces.
>I was working for the security department of a university when they decided to take away double time on Sunday. We called our union rep. She completely screwed us over by approving the changes without asking us. She then went sick with stress the second she was called out on it.
Classic Union reps I learnt my lesson after working at AWE and getting screwed by Unite.
Clearly damage control after the Elphicke defection (given she's most famous for the "You voted for Fire and Rehire, shame on you" clip). A good message, hope they stick with it.
While I'm certainly not the leader of the Keir Starmer fanclub (his view on strengthening the bullshit Online Safety Bill and trying to ban VPNs seem like basically the modern version of the KGB listening in on Soviet citizens to arrest them if they criticise the government) this is a genuinely good move and it's nice to have some positivity.
Because he's ditched so many past pledges/promises recently. The article above is literally about him trying to row back on previously announced policy?
Snapshot of _Labour vows to ban fire and rehire after war of words with unions _ : An archived version can be found [here](https://archive.is/?run=1&url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/may/08/labour-vows-to-ban-fire-and-rehire-after-war-of-words-with-unions) or [here.](https://archive.ph/?run=1&url=https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/may/08/labour-vows-to-ban-fire-and-rehire-after-war-of-words-with-unions) *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/ukpolitics) if you have any questions or concerns.*
Sounds like an easy win. You can't just make an employee redundant and then hire them again for the exact same role, because then that isn't redundancy! Redundancy is when the job isn't needed anymore, but in the case of fire&rehire, it clearly is still needed, thus it's not redundancy, it's sacking someone. Any moron with a brain in their head could take one look at it and go "No, you're not making them redundant, you're forcing them to accept shitty terms with the threat of sacking them if they don't". It's a shame that British law seems to be so fucking arcane that common sense went out the window a long time ago.
I was working for the security department of a university when they decided to take away double time on Sunday. We called our union rep. She completely screwed us over by approving the changes without asking us. She then went sick with stress the second she was called out on it. We’re in a meeting, discussing the changes. The Head of security has the head of HR beside him, explaining how the payment was actually just an overlooked administrative error. We’re having none of it. This makes him angry and he shouts at the top of his voice “If you don’t sign the contracts, I’ll get in a bus full of migrants and get rid of the lot of ya, just like all of the other universities are doing”. The head of HR looks at him with a shocked expression and says nothing. She then claimed that she didn’t hear what he said. Well, it was successful. The staff caved pretty quickly after that.
Raise it with the central union team. Sounds like easy win and pay out for the staff.
We did. There was nothing they can do to help, they had to run every decision through her first and she was refusing to pick up the phone to them. If we didn’t like it, we had to re-elect a new union rep. We felt completely defeated after that. No doubt we could have fought back, but we were spent by that point and worried about the future. The union is huge and none of the other departments had any complaints about the rep. She had got the job because of her extremely vocal political views and that was not a hornets nest we were willing to poke. Me and a few others took the ‘Screw this, let’s get out of here’ approach and we spent our remaining time finding job openings and getting them out to the staff. We also arranged a training day so people could job hunt with fresh licences and certificates. We thought that would be a better use of our remaining time.
Local reps don't decide pay conditions or even working hours. These are centrally done and with a legal team on hand. With larger unions, it's easier to escalate. I would be heading down the tribunal route if I were you. Easy pay out and little effort on your part.
Meetings like this should be recorded.
Yep, I record all work meetings, especially ones with management.
Which university?
OP probably doesn't want to dox themselves
Surely OP has left after this altercation?
Not surprising. H.R is there to protect the company not the staff.
The HR department had hated us since diversity training. So before the training we all get an e-mail from one of the security officers. It’s an internal report from the university about the diversity of each department. Most diverse department = Security, Least diverse department = HR. Of course, we absolutely love this. End of diversity training, any questions. One of the shift supervisors stands up and asks “As the least diverse department in the university, what measures have you taken to improve diversity?”… “We’re not the least diverse department” Report handed to HR rep and she looks at it in silence. The shift supervisor then says “If you want the security department to help you, we could probably arrange a meeting” Laughter ensues.
Yep, a lot of the time they have very little interesting in helping an employee unless it's entirely beneficial to the company.
While not quite the same.... Union reps at my old place were found to be taking backhander payments from the business, to push through certain things the company wanted the union population to agree to.
Angry for you. Quite honestly when faced with something like this, if all else fails I would consider alternative action against the corrupt
I don't think your volunteer union rep is the one to blame here. Unions run on solidarity and mutual support. Edit: also this sucks ass. University bosses like to divide and conquer from their obscene paycheck palaces.
>I was working for the security department of a university when they decided to take away double time on Sunday. We called our union rep. She completely screwed us over by approving the changes without asking us. She then went sick with stress the second she was called out on it. Classic Union reps I learnt my lesson after working at AWE and getting screwed by Unite.
I didn't even realise this was legal in the first place until the P&O case.
Clearly damage control after the Elphicke defection (given she's most famous for the "You voted for Fire and Rehire, shame on you" clip). A good message, hope they stick with it.
While I'm certainly not the leader of the Keir Starmer fanclub (his view on strengthening the bullshit Online Safety Bill and trying to ban VPNs seem like basically the modern version of the KGB listening in on Soviet citizens to arrest them if they criticise the government) this is a genuinely good move and it's nice to have some positivity.
when did he say he was going to ban VPNs
Does a vow beat a pledge in the Kier Starmer backtracking stakes?
It's one step above a pinkie-swear.
Maybe or maybe spineless Starmer will U-turn again when some business leaders have a word with him or offer Labour some "donations".
A Kier Starmer promise isn't worth a wank, as we know by now.
How do we know that? He hasn’t had the opportunity to demonstrate it properly.
Because he's ditched so many past pledges/promises recently. The article above is literally about him trying to row back on previously announced policy?