Despite the short notice a large number of members were able to attend this afternoon’s meeting to discuss a response the the university’s proposal.

The university concedes that the way it has presented data about the effect of Rightsizing on research time has caused confused the situation and led to the belief that research time will impacted for those undertaking research as part of their contract. The proposal offers some guarantees that research time will not be cut as a result of this exercise. Voluntary redundancy schemes are proposed for LINCS and Scholar with a view to removing compulsory redundancies if there is sufficient uptake.

We still have significant concerns and and further progress will need to be made on some key points before we can consider the dispute resolved. We do however consider this to movement in the right direction.

At the meeting members voted to call of strike action on Monday and Tuesday to allow further talks. UCU will now meet with the University Executive on Tuesday for further talks in a second dispute resolution meeting.

Remaining strike days

The scheduled strike days from Tuesday 17 March will go ahead as planned unless the branch receives an improved offer sufficient to resolve the dispute from the university.  We will more information about the strike action and picket line next week.

Action Short of Strike

Action Short of Strike (ASOS) will begin on Monday 9 March as planned and it is even more important now for members to stick strictly to ASOS to put pressure on our employer while continue talks. Guidance about ASOS can be found at https://www.ucu.org.uk/article/13289/Taking-action-short-of-a-strike-ASOS

Next meeting

In anticipation of further developments please hold the date provisionally for an online members’ meeting on Friday 13 March at 13:00. Confirmation with a link will be sent out during the week if negotiation progress merits. Please keep an eye on your email for updates.