Members of Bangor’s University and College Union (UCU) have passed a motion of no confidence in the university’s management after they proposed to cut 200 staff. The union have instead proposed a temporary pay cut on a sliding scale for all staff for a period of two years.

The university faces a £13 million gap in their budget, that management attributes to the impact of Covid-19 on international student recruitment.

The present proposals from the university would mean job cuts of 20% across academic schools, IT Services, the library, and student-focused departments, such as study skills and student counselling.

Professor Doris Merkl-Davies, Bangor UCU committee member and Bangor Business School UCU representative, said that members were ready to fight for their colleagues’ jobs.

“Staff morale is incredibly low. Even staff in schools with no redundancies, such as the Business School, feel that this is just a temporary reprieve,” she said.

“‘Nobody is safe,’ they say. ‘Next year it may be us.’ This feeling has engendered a strong sense of solidarity.”

The union are proposing that those at the bottom end of the pay scale (earning £20,130) would take the smallest cut of 0.5%. Meanwhile, top earners (managers earning over £114,000) would take the greatest cut (15%). This proposal alone could save between £5m and £5.4m, they say.

The unions say they would accept this “collective sacrifice” in exchange for a pause in the current restructuring process, and a guarantee of no compulsory redundancies for the duration of the two-year period of the proposed pay cut.

The Union has also called for:

  • Increased union scrutiny of financial information to ensure all significant spending is in the interests of staff, students and the institution.
  • Changes to the university’s internal management policies to ensure the unions have the right to be informed and consulted at the earliest opportunity on financial issues. This follows failure of management to keep the unions abreast of financial shortfalls arising from the COVID-19-induced deficit in student halls accommodation from earlier this year.
  • That seats on University Council – the university’s governing body that sets the university’s strategic direction and provides financial oversight – are given to the joint unions.

Strike Action

In a letter to the university’s Vice Chancellor and Chair of Council sent on 22 October, Bangor UCU President Dr. Dyfrig Jones said that members were ready to take industrial action over the plans.

“You will, I’m sure, have seen news reports that the UCU branch at Heriot-Watt University in Edinburgh have today voted to take strike action. It is entirely possible that we will be forced to follow suit here at Bangor, unless there is an immediate and fundamental change of direction,” he said.

To avoid further industrial action at Bangor University, Dyfrig Jones implored the university’s Executive and Council to “respond positively” to three unions’ counterproposals, “for the sake of Bangor University and all of its staff”.

Ballot of Members

In an e-ballot of members that closed on 21 October, Bangor UCU members passed several motions with an overwhelming majority voting in favour of:

  • Improving accountability of the university Executive (the managers) by calling upon the Higher Education
  • Funding Council for Wales, the Charity Commission, the Committee of University Chairs, and Bangor
  • University Privy Council to conduct an urgent and exhaustive review of Bangor University governance (93%).
  • Rejecting management’s Business Cases for restructuring and cuts in their current form (90%).
  • Expressing a lack of confidence in the university Executive given “serial mismanagement of finance and strategy by the Executive, resulting in a sustained and repetitive cycle of job losses, work-overload, casualisation, and detriment to staff well-being, the student experience, and the reputation of the University” (87%).
  • Negotiating a salary reduction to save jobs and improve university governance (84%).
  • Balloting on industrial action to prevent compulsory redundancies (81%).