Staff at the University of Salford are set to follow up last month's one day strike with further sustained action to help shake some sense into University bosses. Next week, Tuesday 26th May to Friday 29 May, UCU members who work in the school of nursing, midwifery, social work and social sciences will be on strike; while those who work in the school of marketing and student recruitment will walk out for a week between 1st and 5th June.
The strikes centre around the sacking of two UCU members by the University, who worked in the school of marketing and student recruitment, and had raised concerns about a restructure. They were placed on forced gardening leave the day before the restructure was announced. And then sacked.
The pair were not given the opportunity to be part of a redundancy selection pool, were not consulted on how their redundancies could be avoided and were not allowed to appeal against their job losses. UCU says their treatment flies in the face of agreed procedures on how the University should carry out redundancies, and believes they were targeted for their trade union activities.
Despite axing both members of staff, apparently as a cost-cutting exercise, new posts have since been advertised internally in their department, and the union has now lodged a complaint on behalf of both members of staff at the employment tribunal. In the meantime, UCU members will be showing their solidarity and anger with industrial action.
"Staff at the University of Salford are showing a fierce determination to support their sacked colleagues whose treatment they found abhorrent and unacceptable in the modern workplace" says UCU regional official, Martyn Moss "No institution should be allowed to ride roughshod over agreed procedures and violate its employees' rights in this way. In the meantime, UCU is still committed to achieving a negotiated settlement through talks."
See also previous Salford Star articles...
• Staff strike against unlawful University sackings – click here
• Attacks on Salford and Bolton trade unionists intensify – click here
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