Sheffield Students’ Union exists to represent, support, and improve the lives of students at the University of Sheffield. With a £10 million turnover including a £3.27 million grant from the university, it runs an advice centre, political campaigns, student clubs and societies, and multiple bars, restaurants, shops and cafés.

The SU proudly tells visitors that it has been voted the best in the country for 11 years running. Yet to run its services, it employs over five hundred casual staff on zero hour contracts, mostly on the minimum wage, and with minimal terms and conditions. These staff are mostly the very students which the SU exists to represent.

Most casual staff rely on the money they earn to live. Many of us are students whose student loans don't come close to covering living costs and who can't rely on money from parents to survive. Then there are those of us who work full time as casuals, for whom our wages are our sole source of income.

The SU sees itself as a responsible employer, which is why in 2015 it announced it would begin paying all core staff at least the living wage. Yet the various benefits which are offered to core staff are not offered to casuals.

We are not guaranteed the Real Living Wage, and in most roles we are paid below the average in the region. If we get ill, we only have access to Statutory Sick Pay, which for most of us means no sick pay at all. We are given the minimum legal holiday entitlement, and it is rolled up into our hourly rate which creates an incentive not to take holidays. Many of us work extremely unsociable hours for the minimum wage, and none of us have a guaranteed income, because we are employed on zero hour contracts.