The University and College Union is to ballot its members for strike action claiming 219 staff at the University of Manchester are at risk of redundancy after changes to its redeployment policy.
The union accused managers of ignoring agreed procedures and pushing staff into redundancy after talks with conciliatory service ACAS last week broke down.
The dispute stems from changes to the university’s policy in April, which say staff on its redeployment register for a period of three months or more may face redundancy.
University managers issued 37 ‘at risk of redundancy’ notices.
In July 219 staff working in IT were also to be given notice of potential compulsory redundancy.
The union says that it now has little alternative but to ballot members for industrial action.
UCU regional official, Martyn Moss, said: “Out of the blue, 37 people who thought they were safely on the books of the university suddenly faced a redundancy process.
“The university ignored its own rules, when it shut down discussions with the trade unions and dramatically shifted the goalposts for these 37 staff.
“To make matters worse another 219 staff are also at risk of losing their jobs. Despite our best efforts to try and resolve these problems over the past six months, we now feel we have no alternative but to ballot for industrial action.
“Notwithstanding this, we remain committed to more talks to resolve this dispute and would welcome the further support of ACAS in doing so.”
A University of Manchester spokesman said: “The University continues to meet with the trade unions on a range of matters and has offered further discussions to try to resolve any issues.”
The ballot will open on Monday 2 November and close on Friday 20 November.
Main image by Mikey via Flickr
