8 March 2024
UCU Hallam Branch Press Release
Re: Redundancy notices issued, and national framework agreement breached
Sheffield Hallam University has issued over 120 “risk of redundancy” letters to grade 9 staff and above across all of its three Colleges and opened a voluntary redundancy (VR) scheme on 6th March 2024. Staff have been given until 18th March to either apply for VR or a limited number of new roles. This follows on from a recent voluntary severance (VS) scheme, as a result of which over 140 academic staff have left, or will be leaving, the University. The University has also said that cuts to staffing costs for Professional Services will be announced in the coming days.
The University has removed the Grade 9 Principal Lecturer role and staff at this grade are the primary recipients of the redundancy letters. The University is introducing a Grade 6 Academic Tutor role which has been identified by management as a way of back-filling any potential gaps in staffing. This is a breach of the national and local framework agreement. The framework agreement (FA) is an agreement, reached in 2004, between the national employers and unions for the modernisation of pay structures in higher education.
The introduction of the grade 6 role will be a further degradation of teaching standards at the University, which recently received the Gold TEF award in 2023.
The UCU General Secretary, Jo Grady, has written to the University’s new Vice-Chancellor Professor Liz Mossop in response to the breach of the national agreement, saying:
“I am aware that there are proposals for academic role changes at Sheffield Hallam University that will lead to a breach of both the national and local framework agreement. Those agreements, although made some time ago, form part of our collective agreements with the university and a proposal to breach such agreements could lead to serious damage to the industrial relations between the university and UCU that we would very much like to avoid.
Colleagues have outlined the situation to me, and it seems to me that the problematic elements of your proposals are:
- The introduction of a Grade 6 Academic Tutor role.
- The introduction of line management responsibilities to new Grade 8 Lecturers.
- The removal of Grade 9 Principal lecturing staff.
UCU does not consider it optional for employers to follow the national framework agreement, nor to pick and choose which parts they comply with, and any change to it needs to be made on a national basis by agreement.”
The redundancy notices, VR and VS are measures to reduce staff costs as a result of the risky financial choices made by the University Executive Board. This includes the London Brent Cross campus project, to which the University signed a pre-lease agreement.
UCU is committed to working with the university to find alternative solutions which do not include staff redundancies and a weakening of teaching standards.
UCU Hallam Branch