Edinburgh Uni finance fiasco cripples research and leaves staff unpaid
Branch survey reveals major impact on the most vulnerable staff
It’s unacceptable for staff to face delays in being paid what they’re owed for work they’ve done. The university need to pull out all the stops to pay people so that they can pay their rent, bills and meet their financial commitments. With the cost-of-living crisis and year-on-year real term pay cuts, things are bad enough for university staff without the university holding onto their wages. It’s also time for the university to explain to staff and students exactly what’s happened and what steps they’re putting in place to resolve the issue, including recompensing staff who have suffered additional costs like overdraft changes or penalties for late payments through no fault of their own.
The University of Edinburgh (UoE) is the 2nd largest employer in Scotland after SSE, and the largest when PhDs are included. This finance issue is arguably the largest HR/employment issue in Scottish history. Research has ground to a halt at Scotland's largest uni. UoE is not centrally collecting info on P&M issues, however a survey run by UCU Edinburgh received over 500 responses.
The responses were overwhelmingly negative with staff unable to do their jobs, supervisors paying their student's stipend, researchers paying for their own research materials without reimbursement. Operating theatres couldn't get essential surgical equipment, and safety equipment could not be purchased. The Uni is also blacklisted from almost every courier service and numerous scientific supply companies.
Teaching, research and administrative and support staff are under huge strain, with morale dropping through the floor which has obvious knock-on consequences for students. Senior management are abdicating their duty of care to staff and students by their inaction on this matter. There has been absolutely no communication with staff in general and junior managers, whose responsibility this is not, are left apologising to over-stressed teams with no support from above.
Students are being advised to request hardship payments and when they do so, they are required to send their bank statements and then asked intrusive and inappropriate questions on their personal finances and bank transactions. And even worse, they are being asked all this by junior admin staff, clearly overworked, who have no choice but to constantly firefight problems.
The situation is untenable. We expect immediate action to resolve this.
Image borrowed from this tweet