Protestors gathered at Sheffield Hallam University on November 18 over a delayed pay rise.
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00:00When do we want it? Now!
00:02What do we want? Fair pay!
00:04When do we want it? Now!
00:06So we're here today because the University have said
00:08that they're going to defer workers' pay
00:10for 11 months and not back-date it.
00:13That was a statement made in September
00:15to a lot of lower-paid workers
00:17and all workers across the University.
00:19What this equates to in our minds is wage theft
00:21and so for most of our workers
00:23that means they're going to be losing roughly £1,000
00:25or more this year
00:27if the University go ahead with deferring
00:29and no back-dating.
00:31And what are you demanding today?
00:33So we're demanding obviously that the University
00:35implement whatever pay award is agreed
00:37because we've not even had an opportunity to ballot our members
00:39on the pay award that was offered
00:41and that they back-date
00:43the pay award immediately
00:45so that they don't pinch from workers' pockets
00:47in order to pay for their own
00:49financial mismanagement.
00:51And obviously it's graduation today, why did you choose
00:53today of all days?
00:55So I'm here to talk to students
00:57and tell them about the issue that's affecting people
00:59they see day in, day out.
01:01So why are you here today?
01:03So my name's Dan Grace,
01:05I'm a Communications Officer
01:07for Sheffield Howard Unison.
01:09We're here today with our members,
01:11with GMB, with UCU
01:13and Unite as well
01:15to tell the University
01:17that we're not happy over their decision
01:19to defer the latest pay award
01:21and then to not back-date that pay award.
01:23And what demands
01:25are you setting out today?
01:27Well, in the first place we would like
01:29that pay award to be implemented
01:31as soon as possible.
01:33When it is implemented it needs to be
01:35back-dated as it has been in every previous year.
01:37We also,
01:39our second key demand is
01:41for a union voice
01:43when it comes to the setting of budgets
01:45and that kind of thing.
01:47There have been some poor decisions
01:49made at Sheffield Haven recently
01:51and we feel that
01:53with closer union involvement
01:55we might have been able to avoid some of that.
01:57So what we really want to do is
01:59we want to get Haven back on track
02:01and we want to help sort things out here.
02:03And today is quite a busy day
02:05with graduations and everything.
02:07Why did you choose today to come out?
02:09Well,
02:11I mean, really, because it's a busy day
02:13we want to be visible, we want our members
02:15to see us, but we also want
02:17members of the public to see us,
02:19to see the diversity here to see us
02:21so we can explain to them the situation
02:23so we can make the case
02:25for ensuring that our members get
02:27the pay award that they deserve
02:29and that unions should be more closely involved
02:31in setting up the budgets like we discussed
02:33and mentioned previously.
02:35Is there anything else that you wanted to add?
02:37I don't think so.