The main union changed its mind after bosses agreed to no compulsory redundancies before the end of 2025
A strike and marking boycott by UCU members at Cardiff University has been called off this afternoon. The UCU Cardiff branch drew back on threats of a walk out and disruption after bosses agreed not to make any compulsory redundancies before the end of the 2025 calendar year.
Joey Whitfield Cardiff UCU President said: “We are really pleased that UCU members and staff at the university have had the threat of compulsory redundancy removed.
“We remained concerned about the future of the university. But we welcome the change in tone and approach and look forward to working more closely with the university in coming weeks.” You can get more story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
The university had already said that if staff agree to suspend all industrial action that it would not make any compulsory redundancies of staff connected to the proposed cuts programme before the end of this year. That has now been agreed after talks this afternoon. You can read our story on that here.
The university said it was able to do this because of the number of applications for voluntary redundancy currently received.
The UCU union held an extraordinary general meeting today (Thurs May 1) to discuss this proposal with their members today..
After, a Cardiff UCU Spokesperson commented: “University management have been forced to the negotiating table this week by the huge staff, student, public, and political opposition to their massive cuts proposals.
“To avoid summer strikes and a marking and assessment boycott they offered a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies in relation to their restructuring plans for all staff in the 2025 calendar year. In doing so they fully met our key demand under the current mandate for action, and we welcome that.
“But our members are still deeply unhappy with the restructuring process, and the way it is being delivered. For that reason, we’ve also decided to seek to renew our industrial action mandate when the current one expires.
“Trust and confidence in the University Executive Board has been destroyed, and this will take time to rebuild. We truly welcome the new partnership-led approach the University has committed to, and we look forward to working much more closely together than we’ve been able to so far.
“We will be releasing a joint statement regarding the agreement in due course.
“Our members have won a big victory today, but the problems faced by staff at Cardiff University are far from over. The struggle continues.”
The university said it will publish an interim timetable next week, showing what happens between the end of the cuts consultation and a meeting of the university council on June 17. You can get more story updates straight to your inbox by subscribing to our newsletters here.
“That council meeting is the point at which we can give a definitive update on plans and their impact on staff and their at-risk status,” the university said.
“We want to recognise the very real human impact that the Academic Future project has had, and the level of anxiety felt more broadly across the academic and professional services. Again we have committed to working in partnership together to assess the steps that we can take to ensure that we are looking after the health and wellbeing of our staff.”
Members of the UCU had planned a walk out on May 2. That is off as well as the planned indefinite marking and assessment boycott, which could have affected graduations. That had been due to start on May 6.
The university announced proposed sweeping cuts, including entire department closures, in January. Since then it has agreed to consider not closing the school of nursing The initial 350 job losses proposed have also gone down with many staff taking voluntary redundancy.
A Cardiff University spokesperson said: “The news that UCU has called off all its planned industrial action comes as a welcome relief, especially for those students whose studies would have been so severely impacted.
“We are very pleased that we have been able to arrive at this point, and we reconfirm our desire to work in partnership for the benefit of students, staff and our wider University community.
“We hope now to move forward with more positive and constructive talks with our campus trade unions on how we can work together to address our immediate financial challenges and secure the University’s long-term future.”
