Staff at beleaguered Scottish university embark on 3 weeks of strikes from today over jobs threat

The University and College Union (UCU) announced its members would be taking part in the industrial action on each weekday for the next three weeks. It comes after almost three-quarters of those voting backed strikes in a ballot, with a turnout of 64 per cent.

The university said it was “disappointed” by the announcement, which it branded “premature”. Efforts will be made to minimise the impact on students, but it said “some areas will be more affected than others”.

The action gets under way ahead of a key meeting of the university’s ruling court on Tuesday, where details of the institution’s financial recovery plan are expected to be agreed, potentially including a target for reducing the workforce.

The Scottish Funding Council has said it stands ready to consider any bids for financial support to deliver the recovery plan. SNP ministers have also been asking university bosses to try to avoid compulsory redundancies, urging them to work with staff to make every effort to protect jobs.

Work on the strategy got under way in November after principal Iain Gillespie announced job cuts were inevitable to try to plug a deficit of up to £30m. Mr Gillespie resigned with immediate effect a few weeks later, and was followed out of the door by court chair Amanda Millar last week.

An “external agent” is being appointed to investigate the deterioration in its finances, which has followed a drop in student recruitment.

The UCU said staff would be on picket lines from 8am to 11am outside the Tower Building on Perth Road in Dundee. The branch at the university will also be holding a rally at midday on Monday at the Caird Hall. The rally will hear from students, local politicians and UCU general secretary Jo Grady.

The union said that it was committed to working with the university to ensure a sustainable future for the institution, its students and staff. But UCU said this should not involve the use of compulsory redundancies.

Ian Ellis, the Dundee University UCU branch co-president, said: “No-one wants to take strike action, but throughout this dispute UCU members at the university have shown they’re determined to do whatever it takes to stop the university forcing staff out of their jobs because of mistakes management has made.

“Every single member of staff is committed to ensuring the university’s long-term future. It’s not too late to save jobs and it’s not too late for senior managers to take action to stop the strikes.

“We’re calling on university management to rule out the use of compulsory redundancies and to work with staff and the union to deliver the best future for our university, our students and the city of Dundee.”

Ms Grady said: “Dundee's previous senior management team drastically failed to safeguard the university's finances, and we refuse to allow our members to pay the price for their mistakes.

“We will be on the picket line at Dundee fighting against these brutal cuts, and our members across the country are willing to ballot and strike wherever university managers refuse to try to protect jobs. We hope other vice-chancellors choose to work with us to avoid disruption.”

A spokesperson for the University of Dundee said: “We remain disappointed in UCU’s move to strike. This action, voted for by less than 10 per cent of our staff, will do nothing to help build a more sustainable future for the university.

“We want to work constructively with the trade unions. We have been in regular discussion with the unions since November and remain committed to meaningful consultation going forward. While we recognise the concerns of the unions and staff, we consider this action to be premature as we have not yet made a firm proposal.

“Most staff will be working as normal across the university. We expect the majority of classes and student contact time will proceed as normal, but some areas will be more affected than others.

“We will do all we can to mitigate the impacts on our students and ensure as little disruption to their students as possible.”

The Unison trade union said last week that professional services staff at Dundee University, including IT, administrative, cleaning, security and facilities workers, were also to be balloted for industrial action over the threat to jobs.

Earlier this month, SNP ministers tabled plans to use coming legislation to hand the SFC new powers to monitor the financial stability of Scottish colleges and universities. It is thought to have been prompted by the crisis at Dundee.

However, Dundee is not the only university in financial trouble, following a fall in international students and many years of real-terms cuts to funding.

Cardiff University is axing 400 jobs, while both Edinburgh and Robert Gordon universities in Scotland are cutting posts and restructuring, as are others.

On Saturday, meanwhile, The Scotsman revealed Dundee University was facing fresh pressure over its failure to disclose any details about any pay-off agreed with its former principal.

All the institution will say is that it expects Mr Gillespie will be paid his “contractual entitlement”. The university also declined to say when the information would be made public.

The Scottish code of good higher education governance states: “Where a settlement agreement has been put in place for the principal of an institution, the information that will in due course be contained in the institution’s financial statements should be published as soon as possible after the date of the settlement agreement.”

It comes after the university previously refused to release Mr Gillespie’s resignation letter, following a Freedom of Information (FOI) request from The Scotsman, on the grounds that it would contain personal information relating to third parties, such as names and contact details.