Students on zero-hours contracts who work in college catering have had their hours dramatically reduced and have not been offered furlough pay, leaving many of them without a way to pay rent.
Student-staff were originally told that from 9 November, no shifts would be available for them.
According to multiple sources, student staff weren’t given any indication that York Catering Limited, a subsidiary of the University of York that deals with college catering, would make this move.
Three days after this an email was sent by college catering managers, telling student staff members that they would not be furloughed.
This is despite the fact that student staff who worked in college catering during the summer term last year were given furlough pay.
One student told York Vision: “The government paid 80% of our wage, which they worked out an average of our hours worked each month, then the Uni topped up the other 20%.”
“This time we’re being given nothing. We’ve had very few hours given, and I genuinely feel mugged off.”
“It’s been a pisstake. We had to go in for training days. All for two weeks of work and no furlough”.
A University spokesperson said that casual college catering staff were not guaranteed future employment, saying: “The ad hoc nature of casual work means that hours are not guaranteed and therefore can not be guaranteed that they would not reduce.”
“If the demand on our services starts to increase post the second lockdown, we will consider the use of casual workers again.”
“We are committed to being a fair and ethical employer and will keep shifts under review, with the hope of being able to offer casual work again in the future.”
The University says that catering staff were furloughed during the lockdown because they had no operations open, and therefore no work to offer them.
Catering operations are now being filled by permanent staff, most of whom are not students.
A University spokesperson told Vision: “Casual staff are predominately used to fill shifts as and when required to cover for sickness or other sudden, unexpected short term absence.”
“Demand for this sort of work has reduced due to the downturn in trading across campus as a result of the pandemic. As such we have had to review our staffing arrangements.”
However, students who work in college catering dispute this claim.
According to students on casual contracts with YCL, managers will ask staff at the beginning of each term to give their availability.
“They [YCL] get super aggy [sic] if we can’t work shifts we get put on a couple days in advance”, said one student of their employer.
However, emails sent to staff by catering management tell a different story.
The Catering Manager at Derwent College told student staff: “We don’t feel it is fair to send some people home on 100% pay whilst other people with the same job title are asked to work”.
They went on to say that the decision was made “in order to try and protect contracted jobs as a top priority”.
It is important to note that there is no implication that either YCL or the University have committed any wrongdoing thus far.
Despite this, students on contract with YCL still feel let down by them.
Many students who work in college catering felt that the decision to not furlough casual staff was unfair to them, especially in light of YUSU’s decision to furlough all of their staff.
“YUSU have put their catering staff on furlough. This is the most comparable employment situation to ours, so it is a very poor reflection of the university that they haven’t responded similarly.”, one student said.
On 3 November, York Vision reported that YUSU’s staff members would receive 100% furlough pay, with the government paying 80% of that.
YUSU President Patrick O’Donnell said of the decision to place YUSU staff on furlough: “I am pleased that we are able to support our hard working student staff members at this time. Our teams have worked tirelessly over the last few weeks, and it is absolutely right that we are able to support them in the coming period.”
One student who works at Derwent Catering told Vision: “Given that furlough pay is 80%, if the University weren’t to ‘top up’ our furlough there’d still be extra rewards for those who are working”.