Are you a 'casualised' worker?
The Sheffield UCU (SUCU) Anti-Casualisation Network are keen to fight for improved conditions with people that self-identify as casualised workers. In general, we take this to mean any 'non-standard' employment practice across the university, (even where casualised work is rapidly becoming the standard for the sector).
For people who are eligible to join UCU, this can include, but is not limited to: (1) postgraduate researchers (PGRs), who are not considered 'staff' but nonetheless perform vital research work for the institution; (2) PGRs who either perform hyper-casualised labour on an ad hoc basis without a contract, or who are hourly paid but not considered 'employees', such as Graduate Teaching Assistants (GTAs); and (3) academic and professional services staff (at grade 6 or above) on fixed-term, zero hours, hourly paid, and fractional contracts
For people who are eligible to join Unite or UNISON, this can include anyone working on a fixed-term, fractional, hourly, zero-hour, or casual contract across facilities and technical roles (Unite), or professional services below grade 6 (UNISON).
These examples are non-exhaustive and if your job category is not listed here, but you identify as being on a casualised form of work, we still want to hear from you in this survey.
Why you should complete this survey
As a result of the outcome of negotiations with the University that arose out of the recent marking boycott, the University have agreed to negotiate with SUCU on matters around casualisation. As such, the SUCU Anti-Casualisation Network are in the process of putting together a set of anti-casualisation demands that the University have already committed to negotiate.
If you are a PGR or casualised member of staff who is eligible to join UCU, filling in this survey will enable you to shape these demands and share what issues matter most to you.
The second aim of the survey is to gather information about types of casual work that are being performed at the University by those eligible to join our campus trade unions: UCU, Unite, and UNISON. As such, there are questions asking participants to describe their job role and contractual type in order to improve our collective understanding of the issues different casualised workers face.
In completing this survey you will provide crucial information that will steer the priorities of our trade unions for the coming year.
Data protection statement
The data collected in this survey will be used by Sheffield UCU to develop a series of demands which will be negotiated with the university's management. The data will also be used to produce a report for the branch on casualisation.
Access to the raw data will be limited to committee members of Sheffield UCU and all personally identifying details will be stripped to anonymise the data before it is used in a report.
Respondents are asked to provide their name and email address if they would like to be contacted in relation to anti-casualisation campaigning. To this end, where provided, this and other information from the corresponding section, will be shared with volunteers from the Sheffield UCU Anti-Casualisation Network.
All collected data will be held for a period of 12 months before being deleted.
