Balloting for industrial action

Information about the September 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?

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.

This Spring, the University Executive Board (UEB) announced reviews of academic staffing in five work areas:

Chemistry
Civil Engineering
The Management School
Materials Science and Engineering
The School of East Asian Studies.

Restructures are anticipated to follow in some, perhaps all, of these areas. UEB aim to save at least £5m through cuts to staff costs across these areas, but have also been clear that they will potentially pursue cuts beyond this figure with a view to changing departments’ ‘size and shape’.

The University is also undertaking restructures of IT Services, and language teaching staff in the School of East Asian Studies, and at the conclusion of the five Professional Services restructures in June, at least 20 staff still remained at risk of redundancy.

In short, the University has demonstrated the concrete intention to make substantial job cuts, potentially including compulsory redundancies, between 2025 and 2026. For staff who remain, this will mean spiralling workload pressures and worsened working conditions.

Our action in May 2025 ensured that there would be no compulsory redundancies at the University before 31st December 2025. We knew at the time we stood down our action however, that further action was likely needed to prevent additional job losses.

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 within two years, 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;
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 S188 notice of proposed redundancies;
negotiate with UCU over staff workloads and job security, in light of the effects of VSS, Central Vacancy Management, and the ending of fixed-term contracts.

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.

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.

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 30th September 2025.

To make sure your papers are received in time we recommend that you post your ballot as early as possible, and by 27th September 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 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