Branch updates

Vote YES! To Strike Action and YES! to Action Short Of a Strike

Published on 27 August 2025 at 14:18

Sheffield UCU Committee is calling on members to vote YES! To Strike Action and YES! to Action Short Of a Strike.

• What is the dispute about? How many jobs are at risk?
• Isn’t there a crisis in Higher Education? Can these problems be solved at Sheffield?
• Weren’t we just out on strike?
• What type of action will we take?
• What financial support will be available for striking members?
• How much pay will I lose?
• Does striking actually work?
• How can I shape what type of action we take?

What is the dispute about? How many jobs are at risk? 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. In addition to over 1000 staff who have faced disruptive restructures over the 2024/2025 academic year, in May the Vice Chancellor announced the university would be undertaking reviews in 5 academic areas: East Asian Studies, Civil and Structural Engineering, Materials Engineering, Chemistry, and the Management School. This is on top of the university-wide restructuring of professional services staff, the ongoing restructure of IT Services, the upcoming restructure of East Asian Studies language provision, and restructures of Nuclear AMRC and the English Language Teaching Centre which took place at the beginning of the 2024/25 academic year.  Alongside a number of staff that remain in scope for redundancy as a result of the PS staff restructure, the upcoming dispute is about resisting further redundancies and restructuring processes to ensure greater security for all staff. SUCU therefore demands the university:

• 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.

Isn’t there a crisis in Higher Education? Can these problems be solved at Sheffield? Whilst there is clearly a crisis in the HE sector which requires urgent Government intervention, we don’t believe that the University of Sheffield is in the level of financial difficulty that it is painting itself to be in. The Vice Chancellor and University Executive Board have also failed to take accountability for their own role in the decline in international student numbers. Using the latest student recruitment data from the Office for Students, our recent article shows that Sheffield had been hit way harder than average in international recruitment. Further, the branch committee believes that the University has not demonstrated the financial or organisational need for the aggressive and abrupt changes to staffing that have been undertaken and are further proposed. The University’s public accounts demonstrate that it has very little debt, strong reserves, liquidity and an operational surplus, and could afford a more measured approach to its current financial situation.

Weren’t we just out on strike? Our strike action in Spring was a phenomenal show of strength and we were able to pause all redundancies until the end of the year, ensuring that as many members facing redundancy could be redeployed. However, further cuts have been announced and, as we mentioned at the time, calling off the last dispute was a strategic pause to support those members  rather than a full resolution

What type of action will we take? We are balloting for 2 forms of industrial action, details of which available below:

• Strike action
• Action Short of a Strike (ASOS)

If we receive a mandate for both forms, we will be able to call both strike action and ASOS, but if we only get a mandate for one (e.g. ASOS), we will only be able to take that form of action.  It’s important to get as clear and strong a mandate as possible to show our strength to management, so we are recommending members to vote YES to both forms on their ballot.

What financial support will be available for striking members? We are still confirming details over the number of days support available from UCU national, but members  should be able to claim from the following 2 sources for lost pay following strike action:

• UCU National Fighting Fund
• SUCU Industrial Action Solidarity Fund

The National Fighting Fund is able to cover £50 per day if you earn over £30,000 and up to £75 per day if you earn under £30,000, from the third day of action. This is expected to be subject to a cap of 8-15 total days claimable. Our Local Industrial Action Solidarity Fund is able to supplement this amount. This support is available to all members of the branch. General information about claiming from these funds is available below: Financial Support for Strike Action

How much pay will I lose? The University normally deducts 1/365th of the annual salary for a full-time employee (pro-rated for part-time arrangements) per day of strike action taken. These deductions are taken pre-tax, so the impact on your take home pay is likely to be less than this. Approximate estimates based on 2022 HE pay spine figures can be found here. You can attempt to calculate the approximate impact on your take home pay by:

1. Dividing your gross annual salary by 1/365th to calculate your day rate
2. Multiply this by the number of days of strike action taken within the payroll period to calculate the gross deduction amount
3. Subtract this from your gross monthly salary (Gross annual salary divided by 12)
4. Enter this figure into the Salary Calculator (make sure to enter your tax code, pension contributions, student loan repayments etc to make this as accurate as possible)

This should only be used as a rough estimate, your actual take home pay may differ due to a range of factors.

Does striking actually work? Withdrawing labour can be one of the most powerful actions that workers in dispute can take. This year, members of Newcastle UCU took 44 days of strike action over the course of 3 months, and achieved an agreement for no compulsory redundancies this year, and that there would be no 'workforce resizing' that was going to threaten 150 jobs next academic year. As a branch, we combine any IA we take with public campaigning and other types of organising to ensure that our action has the most impact.  Crucially though: The longer the picket line the shorter the strike! We need full member participation in our ballot and in any action we take to try to achieve a positive outcome to the dispute. 

How can I shape what type of action we take? The best way to shape the decisions of the branch is to attend general meetings and, especially whilst we are in dispute, the regular extraordinary general meetings that we run as a branch. We are committed to members shaping our strategy through our democratic procedures and general meetings are the best place to do this.  We also run ‘Dispute Committee’ for the duration of disputes. This is a space open to all members of the union to discuss, debate and shape our strategy. If you want to get involved, email us at ucu@sheffield.ac.uk.  Departmental reps will also be engaging with members regularly, so get in touch with them if they haven’t reached out to see if they need any support in organising members within your work area.

Open Letter Regarding the Unite-Veolia Dispute- response from Tom Hunt

Published on 5 August 2025 at 8:35

• Veolia have a contract to run all household waste and recycling services in Sheffield. Refuse collectors work for Veolia.
• Unite are taking industrial action at Veolia because they are seeking official recognition of their union by Veolia.
• Veolia have a longstanding recognition agreement with GMB, who represent the majority of the workforce at Veolia. The agreement dates back to 2004.
• Veolia’s position is that they are willing to work with both GMB and Unite.
• However, as the GMB have the majority membership, the terms of the existing agreement with Veolia require that the GMB must approve this change.
• While discussions have taken place between Unite and the GMB, an agreement has not yet been reached.

SUCU accept offer from management- industrial action called off

Published on 9 May 2025 at 9:42

• Results of poll
• Advice on Returning to Work Tomorrow and Next Week
• Advice on Rescheduling Teaching
• Next steps

Results of poll

Following the poll on the offer from management, our membership checks of participants, and removal of any duplicate votes, we can confirm that members have voted to accept management’s offer (64% in favour, 33% against, with 3% abstaining). Members have also voted to reschedule some activities in return for the University not deducting pay (58% in favour, 21% against, with 21% abstaining). 

This means that we will be notifying management that we are calling off strike action for Friday 9th May and 12-16 May, and that Action Short of a Strike is called off starting Friday 9th May. At the EGM, clarification was sought on whether accepting management’s offer also required us to end our trade dispute. The wording of the offer does not mention the trade dispute, so the chair took the decision that we will not immediately end our dispute as a result of this vote, and we will revisit the question of whether to withdraw our trade dispute as a branch in the coming weeks. 

This means that members are asked to return to work as of Friday 9th May. It also importantly means that management have agreed to not take any strike deductions from all members who participated in strike action. 

This decision does not prevent the branch from entering into future disputes or obtaining a mandate for further action.

The offer represents a win in that it gives staff currently in scope within the ongoing PS restructures more time for posts to be made available through redeployment, or to have their jobs defended through negotiation. While it does not guarantee that there will be no compulsory redundancies, this deal does make it more likely in practice that individuals will avoid being made redundant, and represents a significant move in management’s position prior to our dispute and action.

Advice on Returning to Work Tomorrow and Next Week

We know that calling off action may leave many members feeling overwhelmed with work commitments that they were not expecting to face this week and next. It is crucial that every one of us takes care of ourselves and does not take on the impossible (and unhealthy) task of trying to prepare for everything coming next week in a single day. There is preparatory time which has been missed, and there are simply not enough hours to make up for that time. 

It is important that all members assert their contracted terms which for many includes a nominal 35-hour working week, and do not volunteer substantial amounts of labour above and beyond that which they are contractually obliged to. Working in line with our contracts is a basic labour right which does not need the cover of an ASOS mandate.

Almost every member will have slightly different circumstances and we cannot provide concrete advice on every case, but we suggest that all of you follow the below three guiding principles:

1. Please continue to work to contract. This means not working beyond your usual hours, working over the weekend, or trying to complete several days of work within a single day. 

2. Your line manager may ask you to prioritise certain types of work, up to a certain point. Such instructions should be made with recognition that planned action has been called off at short notice, and it should be in keeping with the general nature of your job (for example, research staff who teach a little should not be asked to spend a significant amount of time replacing any lost learning, and staff who normally only spend a small part of their day replying to student emails should not be asked to clear a week to deal with a long backlog at the expense of all other duties). Managers should also be clear about the work you are not expected to tackle, in order to make space for priority tasks. 

3. You cannot do everything, and that is okay. Some things may not happen to the standard they normally would, and some things may not happen at all. Your line manager should be able to assist and support you, and many line managers are themselves UCU members who will be navigating a similarly abrupt return. 

For members in student facing roles, remember that our students overwhelmingly support us. Just as we were going to ask for their understanding and support in taking strike action this week, we can ask for their understanding and support as we unexpectedly navigate days we did not think we would be working, as well as in any rescheduling of missed activities.

Advice on Rescheduling Teaching

Whilst members have voted to accept the University’s offer to not deduct strike pay in return for members replacing and rescheduling lost work as appropriate and practicable within a reasonable time period. We know this may put some members in difficult positions, and we want to offer some advice, as well as the more general advice offered above. 

It is the Committee’s position that staff cannot be forced to replace like for like activities if this is not possible within the context of staff’s contracts and the remaining time available in the term. 

We will be expecting some advice from Heads of School to go to staff in terms of how to prioritise particular lost learning and activities. We anticipate that management will ask staff to prioritise final-year teaching. We ask that members get in touch if they feel this is in conflict with the principles offered above, or if they feel under particular and unreasonable pressure.

Staff have substantial protection from unsafe workload pressures due to health and safety law. Anyone asked to reschedule teaching should be given the same level of support they would be for normally timetabled teaching, including in finding a time that the registered students can attend, as well as a space for the teaching to occur. With workloads already very high, and only two weeks left before the end of the teaching period, we consider that it will be very difficult in most cases for management to facilitate this without creating a workload crunch point. This would lead to an unacceptable situation unless other tasks related to the teaching portion of the workload are explicitly deprioritised. Again, if members are asked to do more than they feel they can in the time available to them, they should get in touch with us.

Next steps

Whilst this is a win, something which should not be under-emphasised, we recognise that this is only a temporary and partial victory in what is a longer fight and period of uncertainty for the University community. We plan to discuss our next steps as a branch very soon as to how we navigate this into the next academic year.

We will continue to do everything we can to pressure management into avoiding compulsory redundancies and other reductions to staff budgets as part of our ongoing negotiations with management. However it is critical that we remain prepared to take additional strong industrial action over the coming year.

We would like to thank members for their support and solidarity, as well as the incredibly hard work put in by our reps, negotiators, and committee members over the past weeks and months.

Members vote to begin industrial action at the end of April 2025

Published on 16 April 2025 at 10:44

Following two well attended and constructive General Meetings, Sheffield UCU members have voted in favour for an industrial action strategy targeting the last three weeks of term.

This will consist of:

• One day of strike action on Wednesday 30th April
• Action Short of Strike from Thursday 1st May onwards (not 28th April as previously stated)
• Followed by a 9 day walk out from Tuesday the 6th May until Friday the 16th May, should the University fail to meaningfully commit to addressing our demands

On 16 April, we are meeting with management in a negotiation over our current dispute. Our dispute demands ask management to avoid compulsory redundancies by working with staff in scope and TU reps to re-design the current restructure proposals to preserve all jobs, and to make this same commitment to avoid compulsory redundancies as a result of change management for any process that is launched between now and the end of the 25-26 academic year.

Asking management to not make staff redundant is a reasonable request to make at any time, but especially during the current period of such disruptive change. The extensive changes to structure that management are making will create substantial upset to working practices across the entire university, and will take time to settle. We are asking management to approach this change responsibly and take this time.

Moreover, we believe that the university is taking a particularly conservative approach to its financial risk, and that there is not a strong financial argument behind pursuing these compulsory redundancies. Management have indicated that the potential savings from redundancy in the current structures is relatively limited. We are also aware that, via Voluntary Severance and ‘vacancy management’, the university has already reached a level of future year-on-year savings which nearly meets its stated target of £23m. As a union, we do not wish to see the university reduce staffing levels because of the workload implications, but we would far rather see staff leaving voluntarily than to be forced out of their livelihoods.

Lastly, we have asked management to commit to reducing their own pay and forgoing bonuses until the university is back in surplus. To the extent that it is truly necessary to reduce staffing costs at this university as opposed to reducing other costs, then true leadership would be to reduce costs at the top before threatening any staff jobs. We have also asked management to temporarily suspend leadership uplifts until the university has returned to surplus. These measures alone are equivalent to between 52-62 jobs at Grade 6.

We will report the outcome of next week’s negotiation to members, but to provide maximum support for the negotiation, we need members to prepare to take impactful strike action. As a first step, we are asking members to please hang the attached poster in your workplaces.

We will be updating our industrial action resources over the next couple of weeks. Our page on the practicalities of strike action may be helpful.

Consultative Ballot on Redundancies

Published on 22 January 2025 at 13:49

• management have not adequately demonstrated the financial need to pursue such aggressive levels of cuts;
• management’s stated timeline of returning to a surplus position within the short timeframe of two years is unnecessary;
• management have still not fully explored non-staff alternatives, including comprehensively reviewing the amount of money paid to third party vendors (including management consultancies, private security firms, and IT consultancies), or how this could be reduced to save jobs and/or bring work in-house;
• management have not full explored all options within the staffing budget, such as reduced hours, voluntary unpaid leave, or re-opening the VS scheme;
• management have not adequately explained why UEB salaries should remain at their current level, rather than being reduced to save jobs, nor have they committed to forgoing their bonuses until the university returns to a surplus position; 
• management’s transparency and openness regarding the university’s financial position needs to improve, in order to build staff trust.