Balloting for industrial action

Information about the Spring 2026 ballot for industrial action, including how it works and what we are balloting for.

What is a ballot?

To take official industrial action, trade unions must get agreement from their members by holding a ballot.

The ballot asks members to vote on taking industrial action – for example, to strike, take action short of a strike, or both.

For the ballot to be successful, the ballot must follow various rules, and at least 50% of eligible members must respond to the ballot.

As such it’s extremely important for every member to take part- no matter how they vote!

What are we balloting for?

Since the Vice Chancellor was appointed to the University, we have seen a systemic programme of destabilising change management, with thousands of staff being placed at risk of losing their jobs. For some staff, this stressful experience has happened several times in the last five years. Even for those staff who have not lost their jobs, this campaign has created a demoralising cycle of stress and uncertainty. We need the constant threat to our livelihoods to end, and to have senior leaders who do not see staff as expendable.

The University Executive Board (UEB) has announced reviews of academic staffing in four more work areas:

School of English
School of History, Philosophy and Digital Humanities
School of Medicine and Population Health
School of Sociological Studies, Politics, and International Relations

Restructures are anticipated to follow in some, perhaps all, of these areas. This is on top of Chemistry, Materials Science and Engineering, East Asian Studies, and Research, Partnerships & Innovation where reviews are shortly concluding and restructures are anticipated. Overall, UEB aim to save £18.2m from the staff budget by 2026/27, and have persistently expressed a desire to enact changes to the ‘size and shape’ of departments irrespective of savings targets in particular areas..

University leadership have demonstrated the concrete intention to make substantial job cuts, potentially including compulsory redundancies, across 2026 and into 2027. For staff who remain, this will mean spiralling workload pressures and worsened working conditions.

Our previous action ensured that there would be no compulsory redundancies at the University before 31st March 2026.

However, we know that further action is needed to prevent further job losses, particularly in the light of the announcement of the most recent reviews.

This branch believes that UEB have failed to:

demonstrate the financial need to pursue aggressive cuts to staff budgets;
justify the urgency of returning to a surplus by 28/29, particularly given the health of the University’s reserves and its return to the QS World Top 100;
fully explore non-staff alternatives to budget cuts, including reducing spending on external consultancies and other third-party vendors;
take responsibility for their own role in the sharp drop in international student numbers, given our University saw the greatest decline in the Russell Group;
demonstrate healthy and responsible leadership regarding financial decision-making.

Our dispute demands are that University management:

Commit to no compulsory redundancies for a sustained period agreed with UCU
Negotiate and agree with UCU on measures to avoid compulsory redundancies which go beyond Voluntary Severance
Commit to significantly reducing the planned cuts to staff costs, and to the extent that financial savings are indeed necessary, to shift savings to non-staff budgets
Negotiate and agree with UCU measures to make financial savings without the need to revert to the Management of Change policy/procedure and the issuing of S188 notice of proposed redundancies
Commit to a contractual obligation to avoid routine workloading above 100% of capacity for all members of staff at the University, in accordance with the principles previously established in the Academic and Professional Services Workload groups
Negotiate with UCU over staff workloads and job security, in light of the increase caused by VSS, Central Vacancy Management, and the ending of FTCs

The branch committee recommends that members vote YES and YES to taking strike action and action short of a strike to demonstrate our collective strength and willingness to stand up for our colleagues’ livelihoods. A strong mandate will support our negotiators’ efforts to resolve the dispute before industrial action is necessary, push management to change their approach, and ultimately protect jobs and working conditions at our university.

For more infomation contact ucu@sheffield.ac.uk.

Where is the dispute at now (Feb 2026)?

Following members holding the line and refusing to schedule teaching during the lockout, we are in a very strong position as a branch in this dispute. So far, no staff have been made compulsorily redundant as a result of change management processes since we first obtained a mandate in April 2025. Although of course many roles have disappeared in restructures and hundreds of staff have left the University via voluntary severance.

Reviews of the Management School and Civil & Structural Engineering have concluded without proceeding to a restructure. It’s very unlikely this would have been achieved without the leverage that has been provided by all of us– in every job category from central professional services team to researchers to T&R staff – taking that action we did.

We’re now at a critical juncture- we need to continue our action to keep pressure on management to avoid any future redundancies. Jobs are still under threat in work areas where reviews are due to report back at the end of this month (Research Partnerships & Innovation; Chemistry; Materials Science & Engineering; East Asian Studies), and those where a review has been announced (Sociological Studies; History, Philosophy, and Digital Humanities; English; Medicine & Population Health), as well as in the East Asian Studies language teaching team where a restructure has concluded.

At our General Meeting in January, members voted to take at least 12 days of action after the Easter break. As this falls outside our current mandate, a further ballot is required.

For the sake of all our members and the future of the University- it’s critical that we achieve this mandate!

How do I submit my ballot?

You will receive your ballot papers in the post. Please make sure your address on your UCU record is correct, otherwise you may not receive your ballot. You can do this below and update your address if you need to:

UCU – Support Login

If you haven’t received your ballot paper, you can request a replacement below:

University of Sheffield UCU replacement ballot request form

It is possible to request a replacement ballot between 9am Friday 20 February 2026 (09:00) and Wednesday 18 March 2026 (00:00)

You will need your UCU membership number which should have been sent to you in an email from the UCU Head Office.

You ballot papers will include 2 questions:

ARE YOU PREPARED TO TAKE INDUSTRIAL ACTION CONSISTING OF STRIKE ACTION?

ARE YOU PREPARED TO TAKE INDUSTRIAL ACTION CONSISTING OF ACTION SHORT OF A STRIKE (ASOS)?

These are both Yes/No questions. You indicate your answer by ticking the relevant box of how you want to cost your vote.

You must vote however you feel, and don’t feel pressured to vote in any particular way. However, the branch committee recommends that you vote YES to both questions.

To submit your ballot, place them in the prepaid envelope and drop it in a postbox.

Once you’ve submitted your ballot, please let us know using this Google form.

When is the deadline to submit my ballot?

The ballot closes on 26 March 2026.

To make sure your papers are received in time we recommend that you post your ballot as early as possible, and by 24 March 2026 at the latest.

What happens after the ballot closes?

We will have a mandate to take industrial action if:

the 50% turnout threshold is met, and;
a majority of the votes have answered ‘Yes’ to either question

As a result of the Employment Rights Bill, this mandate will now lasts for 12 months (rather than 6), during which time we are legally allowed to take official industrial action.

The form of industrial action we can take depends on whether we have received a majority vote for ‘Yes’ in one or both of the questions on the ballot. If we have received a majority for ‘Yes’ for only one form of industrial action (e.g. action short of strike), we can only take that form of industrial action.

Members have voted in general meetings for at least two weeks of strike action in the Spring semester, with a recent motion calling for 12 days of strikes spread over three weeks towards the end of the semester. The branch will continue to collectively develop our plans for strike action and action short of strike throughout the mandate for this action, which, if successful, will last for twelve months from the date of notification, to start not less than 10 days from the close of the ballot.

We will not immediately take industrial action as a result of receiving a mandate. We will discuss the following with members at a meeting:

What kind of industrial action to take;
When this action should start;
How long it should last for;
Details of hardship funds.

As well as other details of the industrial action.

The type or types of ASOS we may call upon you to take include:

working to contract;
not covering for absent colleagues, vacant posts, or posts that are discontinued due to change management;
not rescheduling lectures or classes cancelled as a result of strike action;
not sharing materials relating to lectures or classes cancelled as a result of strike action;
not undertaking any voluntary activities;
not undertaking duties which are not commensurate with the grade of the post;
not using personal devices to conduct work;
not undertaking administrative work related to the REF;
not undertaking administrative work related to external funders, including reporting;
not undertaking work related to the pursuit of University rankings;
not undertaking work related to timetabling;
not undertaking recruitment/admissions work;
not undertaking work related to marking or assessment.

If we do decide as a branch to go on strike or begin ASOS, we must legally give 2 weeks notice to the University before we start.

For more information about what happens during industrial action:

Industrial action | Sheffield UCU