University to avoid 140 compulsory redundancies

The University of Manchester have announced that there have been enough voluntary redundancies to avoid compulsory redundancies in three faculties.

Vice Chancellor and President, Dame Nancy Rothwell, used her weekly statement to staff to confirm that the “Voluntary Severance (VS) Scheme” had received enough responses to ensure that no members staff will be forced to take redundancies.

The news will affect academic staff in the Faculty of Biology, Medicine and Health, the School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, and the Alliance Manchester Business School.

The University had previously said that 140 posts were at risk of forced redundancy.

Professor Rothwell’s statement says: “it will not be necessary to introduce a compulsory redundancy process in these areas and staff are no longer ‘at risk’ of redundancy.”

“All staff in these areas and the trade unions have been informed of this position.”

The Vice-Chancellor also used the message to update staff on various initiatives the University is involved in — including the Russell Group, and praised the announcement by UNESCO that Manchester was announced as a Global City of Literature.

“It was wonderful to learn that Manchester has joined the UNESCO global network of cities of literature, in a process led by colleagues in SALC and partners across the city.”

The news comes after the Manchester branch of the University and College Union (UCU) voted 86.7 percent in favour of strike action against the redundancies, which took place last month.

UCU member staff have also been “working to contract” while not on strike, in protest at proposed cuts to academic staff.

UMUCU responded with the following statement to their members: “We are delighted to see today’s announcement on StaffNet that the Senior Leadership Team will not be seeking permission from the Board of Governors for compulsory redundancies in FBMH, SALC and AMBS. However, two PSS staff colleagues in FSE have not, as yet, been redeployed and still face compulsory redundancy.

“Therefore, our dispute is not over and we ask UMUCU members to continue working to contract while we and the UCU North West Regional Official seek further information about the future of our PSS colleagues.”

You can watch Fuse TV’s report from the UCU demonstrations here.