Campus Unions reacted positively to the news today that an apparently positive ending had been reached to the catering fiasco which had been threatening Cordia workers jobs. According to a statement from the university, reported in the Evening Times here, an agreement has been reached to transfer the catering contract to BaxterStorey with staff now being offered the opportunity to transfer to the new company under TUPE regulations.
As originally reported in Caledonianunion, https://caledonianunion.com/2016/11/04/a-dark-day-for-the-university-for-the-common-good/ the proposals first put forward seemed likely to lead to a massive loss of jobs, and such was the anger of staff and students that following a long campaign with the city unions that represented the Cordia staff, a temporary reprieve was granted (https://caledonianunion.com/2016/11/14/reprieve-for-threatened-workers-as-catering-common-sense-is-applied-at-gcu/) After this staff at a mass meeting voted if jobs were to be lost, to boycott any new outlets, (https://caledonianunion.com/2016/11/22/gcu-staff-vote-for-boycott-if-catering-jobs-are-lost/), and concerns were raised in the Scottish Parliament about the university’s handling of the issue: (https://caledonianunion.com/2016/11/16/scottish-parliament-support-reprieve-for-gcu-catering-workers-jobs/).
Campus unions had argued that catering should be taken ‘in-house’ as is the case in many other universities, but could not sway management in favour of this.
However, our main task of safeguarding Cordia workers jobs and pensions has been successful but we will be maintaining a watching brief on how the handover progresses and how the transition is achieved. And of course our admiration goes out to the women and men in GCU catering who have served us so well over the years, and who stuck together in the long battle to eventually win victory.
