Workers at the University of Sheffield are to hold a ballot of agreement on industrial action, which opens on Monday 24 February.
The formal ballot comes after a consultative vote in January found Sheffield UCU members to be ‘strongly in favour’ of strike action, after negotiations collapsed between them and the university in December.
This is in order to establish whether to take strike action or industrial action consisting of action short of a strike, also referred to as ASOS.
On 14 February, Sheffield UCU declared in a statement that the regional office had informed Sheffield’s Vice Chancellor of the forthcoming ballot.
This motion, in the UCU statement, is a response to the £23 million cut to staff between 2024 and 2026, which will “involve substantial job losses”, as well as impacting workload on the remaining staff members.
Its proposal came after “negotiating in good faith with university management,” who were “unwilling to commit to no compulsory redundancies, nor to substantially reducing their target for staff cuts.”
As such, the branch’s dispute demands again for the university to commit to this proposal, as well as to negotiations on measures to avoid compulsory redundancies.
The ballot closes on Monday 31 March. If over 50% of UCU members vote, and a majority vote ‘yes’ to industrial action, the UCU has a mandate for strike action for six months.
The UCU is also legally required to give two weeks notice to the university before commencing with any form of industrial action, be it a strike or ASOS.
When contacted, a spokesperson for the university declined to comment.
