Campaigning for equality for members who are migrant workers in the UK

Right to strike: we’re delighted that, after pressure from UCU and others, the Home Secretary has said legal strike action will be added to exceptions to the absences rule for workers on visas. So members won’t have to worry about jeopardising their visas by striking. Note though that the government intends to amend the rule ‘in the autumn’, and that they count unauthorised absences for the calendar year (1 January to 31 December), so international staff may need to be careful in counting their absences until 2019.

Thanks to everyone who wrote to their MP about this – the pressure worked!  See more details on separate post. 

Legal advice on working in the UK

UCU has produced guides and legal briefings about working in the UK for UCU members who aren’t UK nationals. There’s also free legal advice from specialist immigration lawyers available for UCU members. See the national UCU website: Working in the UK – a Guide for EEA and Non-EEA Nationals

‘Hostile environment’ in universities: See a report on this from @intnlandbroke, and please fill in an (anonymous) survey from UnisResistBorderControls to help assess what’s happening across UK Higher Education. 

Latest updates relating to migrant members

This page was last updated on 2 August 2019