No college strikes after redundancies withdrawn

Staff at the University of Sheffield International College (USIC) have called off strike action after management guaranteed there would be no compulsory redundancies.

Thirty six staff were initially at risk of redundancy, with private operator Study Group blaming falling student numbers, but all redundancy notices have subsequently been withdrawn.

Members of the University and College Union (UCU) had scheduled strike action throughout February and March, but each of those strike days was suspended amid ongoing talks - meaning no industrial action has taken place on campus.

Union members will now vote whether to end the dispute.

Sam Morecroft, UCU branch chair, said: "We're obviously glad we finally, eventually, got a guarantee from our employer."

He said the final redundancy notices had not been withdrawn until twelve hours before a planned strike, which he called "frustrating".

"We don't want to be saying to our students, 'look, we're going to have to go on strike' - then scrambling around to get our members voting on whether to suspend the action."

However, he called the outcome "a reflection of how trade union power works".

A Study Group spokesperson said: "Throughout the months of active engagement with our employees and their representatives, including the UCU, we have been able to avoid compulsory redundancies through redeployment and voluntary redundancies."

"Several staff have been redeployed to take up new opportunities elsewhere in our network of international study centres."

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