OUTSOURCED security guards at University College London (UCL) are set to strike over “contemptuous” plans to make 40 redundant and fire and rehire the remaining 216.

Workers face “reduced conditions” in their contracts, including fewer hours, amounting to a £13,500 annual pay cut from September, the Independent Workers Union of Great Britain (IWGB) said today.

More than 100 security guards unanimously backed strike action in an indicative show-of-hands vote after subcontractor Bidvest Noonan confirmed that job losses will be part of a restructuring process taking place before the next academic year.

The union has backed the guards’ campaign to end outsourcing at the London university since 2019, with two strikes held last winter. An official ballot will run from June 14 to July 3.

Sir Keir Starmer, speaking at the GMB Congress in Brighton this week, reiterated Labour’s vow to ban fire-and-rehire practices, after the Tories blocked a Bill to do so proposed by Barry Gardiner MP.

Mr Gardiner told the Star: “After P&O, the government promised they would stop this happening ever again. They have done nothing.

“The company is treating these 256 families with contempt. The government is colluding with bad employers to grind down workers’ terms and conditions.

“I cannot wait for a Labour government to stand up for workers and am delighted that the party leadership has said that my Bill and a fair deal for workers will be a manifesto commitment delivered in the first 100 days.”

A UCL security guard said he “loves” his job, which he has held for eight years, adding: “UCL management’s treatment of us has been tone-deaf and cruel.

“It is hard not to see this as a punishment, a retaliation to us speaking out and asking for change.”

UCL natural sciences student Jenna Ali added: “We can’t stand for compromises made to campus security to line the university’s overfilled pockets.”

IWGB general secretary Henry Chango Lopez urged university provost Michael Spence to reverse the cuts, adding: “UCL should be ashamed of their treatment of vital outsourced staff.”

UCL executive director of operations Ian Dancy said the university was working with Bidvest Noonan to ensure that its security teams were “more visible and agile across our large Bloomsbury campus, with better training for staff and access to new innovative technologies.”

He said that UCL encouraged staff and union representatives to take part in a consultation process, adding that “we recognise any period of change can be unsettling.”