Balloting for industrial action

Information about the 2025 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?

University of Sheffield management have announced cuts to staff costs of £23 million between 2024 and 2026. This will involve substantial job losses, including compulsory redundancies, and will affect academic, professional services and technical staff. The extent of staff losses will also substantially impact workload for those who remain.

So far:

over 100 staff have already been issued with ‘at risk of redundancy’ letters in ELTC;
around 1000 staff are expected to be issued with ‘at risk’ letters under the New Schools professional services and faculty hub restructures starting in March 2025;
more staff are expected to be placed ‘at risk’ in academic departments and central professional services where VS savings targets have not been achieved.

In December 2024, this branch launched a local grievance with our employer over these issues, but management were unwilling to commit to no compulsory redundancies, nor to substantially reducing their target for staff cuts.

The branch believes that management:

have not demonstrated the financial need to pursue such aggressive cuts;
have not justified the urgency of returning to surplus within two years;
have not fully explored non-staff alternatives or bringing work in-house, including reviewing payments to third party vendors (e.g. management consultancies, private security firms, and IT consultancies);
have not explored all options within the staffing budget (e.g. voluntary reductions in hours or unpaid leave);
have not adequately explained why UEB salaries should remain at their current level, nor committed to forgoing their bonuses in the longer term;
must demonstrate transparency and openness regarding the university’s financial position, in order to rebuild staff trust.

Our dispute demands are that University management:

commit to no compulsory redundancies;
negotiate and agree with UCU on measures to avoid compulsory redundancies;
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 s. 188 notice of proposed redundancies.

In February 2025, a consultative ballot was given to members to gauge the views of the branch regarding taking industrial action. Members indicated by a substantial margin that they were in favour of declaring a trade dispute and taking industrial action.

We now need to run a formal ballot to receive a mandate for official industrial action.

Find out more by exploring the Sheffield UCU branch blogs on these issues at State of the University 2024-25 or contact ucu@sheffield.ac.uk with any questions.

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

We’ll announce shortly what to do if you don’t receive your ballot papers.

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.

When is the deadline to submit my ballot?

The ballot closes on Monday 31st March 2025.

To make sure your papers are received in time we recommend that you post your ballot as early as possible, and by 28th March 2025 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

This mandate lasts for 6 months, 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.

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

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