Members of the EIS ULA at Glasgow Caledonian University (GCU) have escalated their strike action, seeking to protect members from compulsory redundancy after ACAS talks failed to reach a suitable dispute resolution.

Starting on Monday 21st September, staff were scheduled to take 14 days of strike action over a four week period to protect jobs and the educational provision at GCU.

The EIS, alongside other recognised trade unions at the university, had suspended its industrial action on the lead up to the ACAS discussions in the hope of achieving a no compulsory redundancy guarantee for staff and to work with management on ways to avoid redundancies and look at future workforce planning.

However, GCU management representatives refused to remove the threat of compulsory redundancies during the talks, leaving trade unions with no other choice but to move ahead with their planned industrial action.

The dispute concerns university management’s proposals to continue cutting staff jobs and its refusal to rule out compulsory redundancies, despite the University holding £95M of cash reserves. Four days of strike action were previously taken by EIS members across June, July and August in opposition to management’s redundancy plans.

The University needs to prioritise investing in its staff for the benefit of their students and the reputation of GCU

The EIS ULA is taking action alongside colleagues from the University and College Union (UCU) and Unison. Commenting on the job cuts, EIS General Secretary Andrea Bradley said, “The University’s plan to axe jobs will undoubtedly have a detrimental effect on research capacity, course availability and the quality of education students will receive.

“GCU already has one of the UK’s worst staff-to-student ratios and further job cuts will not only exacerbate the existing workload problems caused by understaffing that members are reporting, but it will harm the student experience.”

Ms Bradley continued, “The University needs to prioritise investing in its staff for the benefit of their students and the reputation of GCU. The University is prioritising its spending on infrastructure at a time when staff are buckling under excessive workload while they see their colleagues leaving the institution.”

“Regarding the commitment of EIS members, Ms Bradley added, “Our members at GCU continue to work tirelessly to support students under extremely difficult conditions. Taking strike action is always a last resort, but staff are resolute in not only defending their jobs, but protecting academic standards and the high quality educational teaching that students deserve.”