Motion 1 – Consultative Ballot on Industrial Action

This branch notes that the recent statement by the Vice Chancellor indicates that massive job cuts will be implemented at the University and particularly in the Arts and Humanities. This follows a period in which staff have already gone through a Voluntary Severance Scheme plus pay cuts.

The branch believes that there are other options to meet the current financial challenges faced by the university and that these should be explored before resorting to job cuts. Some of these options have been laid out clearly for Senior Management, who have refused to engage with them despite their insistence that financial savings must be met. These options include the sale of the former Vice-Chancellor’s house in Putney (the money from which has been earmarked for other purposes and not used to off-set the proposed £4m + savings from staff salaries), a stakeholder model of ‘deferred payments’, and a more progressive pay cut scheme.

The branch is currently in dispute over redundancies and changes to terms and conditions. Therefore, the branch calls for a consultative ballot for industrial action in response to the recent Vice-Chancellor’s statement on further job cuts and redundancies.

Carried