University of Warwick under fire for 'regressive' change to casual contracts

The university plans to bring all teaching staff on casual contracts under the management of a new department known as TeachHigher, and says that this will lead to greater consistency in how those contracts are managed.

The union argues that TeachHigher contracts will not give staff any guaranteed hours, and will mean that casual teaching staff would have inferior terms and conditions to other teaching colleagues. It has written to the university to request that the plans are put on hold so that negotiations can take place.

UCU's national head of bargaining and negotiations, Michael MacNeil, said: 'We're very concerned that this proposal is really an attempt to further undermine the pay and conditions of teaching staff on casual contracts. It flies in the face of progress we have been making with other universities to improve the treatment of casually employed staff. The university needs to call a halt to these regressive plans and sit down with UCU to discuss a way forward.'