Fresh strike action begins at city university

Staff at Sheffield Hallam University have walked out on strike as part of industrial action at both the city's universities in a dispute over job losses, workload and welfare.

It is the second time this year members of the University and College Union (UCU) at Sheffield Hallam have taken action, with members at the University of Sheffield also due to strike in coming weeks.

Bob Jeffery, from the UCU at Sheffield Hallam, said: "Massive cuts have been pushed through, so we've lost about 1,000 staff in the last two years."

A Sheffield Hallam University spokesperson said "tough decisions" had to be made due to "financial challenges", but the university had managed to avoid compulsory redundancies.

The Sheffield Hallam spokesperson said it would continue to seek to avoid compulsory redundancies where possible, but the UCU criticised university management for not ruling them out completely.

Mr Jeffery said it was not just academics who had lost their job but support staff, too.

"It's about 20% of the staff base we had before these cuts began," he said.

"It is really eroding our ability to do our jobs and will also be having a dramatic impact taking that many jobs out of the local economy here in Sheffield."

Mr Jeffrey described staff morale as "pretty bad", adding: "Over the last two years, as we have lost all of that staff, workloads have been going up almost day by day.

"Administrative tasks have been pushed on to academic staff, they are having to cover larger class sizes and support more students.

"There is also a drip-drip nature to these cuts. Every time people settle down a bit and try to adapt to the new normal, a further round of cuts is announced - and people are incredibly worried about their own jobs."

Tuesday's strike came as graduation ceremonies were held at the university.

The Hallam spokesperson said while bosses were disappointed the UCU was taking industrial action, everything possible was being done to minimise the impact on students and the wider university community.

"The university, including our libraries, study spaces and facilities, will all remain open as normal," they said.

"Like all universities, we have had to make some tough decisions due to the financial challenges being faced across higher education.

"To date, we have been able to make significant savings without the need for any compulsory redundancies."

They added that while the overall financial picture for universities was "likely to be challenging for some time", the university would "continue to seek to avoid compulsory redundancies where possible, and continue to engage closely and constructively with our staff and trade union representatives".