SUPPORT staff at the University of Birmingham have taken strike action against poverty pay and to press management to deliver on its pledge of a backdated wage rise from last year.

Hundreds of Unison members at the university leafleted passers-by to raise awareness about the dispute.

Workers are angry that the university sought to end pay negotiations in late 2018 by unilaterally imposing a pay settlement, in a way that a trade unionist described to the Star as “misleading.”

The union now wants management to improve on the settlement by granting an above-inflation pay rise and backdating it to August 2018.

They are also pushing for the university to give real living wage accreditation to all outsourced workers as a way of guaranteeing proper pay rises for low-paid workers.

The union claims that the outsourcing of staff to a private company last year is at the heart of the worsening relationship between management and employees, who already walked out in late June and mid-July in the same dispute.

Students casually employed by the university are also seeking support for a petition addressed to the vice-chancellor that criticises him for asking them to scab on striking workers in July.

They warn that this put them at risk of injury because they have not received the health and safety training required to carry out the jobs of permanent staff.

Earlier this week, several Birmingham Labour MPs, including Preet Gill and Jack Dromey, wrote to the university arguing that it was a “moral imperative” for it to improve wages for struggling staff.

Unison Birmingham branch secretary Mike Moore told the Star: “The university has failed to realise the strength of feeling about this and the extent to which our members need a proper pay rise.

“One of our members addressed a letter directly to the university’s vice-chancellor last month telling him that she has to work two jobs and often spends the entire weekend without sleep to balance family commitments and night work.

“She challenged him to try and live on the same salary for just a short period of time.

“The university makes millions of pounds a year in profit — and the VC [vice-chancellor] personally earns £444,000 a year and is due to take home an £80,000 bonus.

“The university can clearly afford to properly pay its staff.”

Pickets are continuing today at the Edgbaston Park campus.

The university said it was “disappointed” at the Unison action.