Dundee University staff to be balloted over strike action

Staff at the University of Dundee are to be balloted on strike action following reports the institution could cut up to 700 jobs.

The financially-stricken university is battling to overcome a £35m deficit and previously announced that 632 positions would be cut.

However, interim principal and vice-chancellor, Prof Shane O'Neill, told the Scottish government's education, children and young people committee that number referred to full-time equivalent posts, and the actual number of people affected would be higher.

The Unite union said it had "no option" but to consider a walkout, accusing the university of "gross financial mismanagement".

The university described the announcement of the ballot, which opens on Friday and will close on 24 April, as "hugely disappointing".

The university currently employs 3,259 people on a full-time basis and has 271 unfilled positions.

Unite said it hoped the ballot would halt the threat of compulsory redundancies.

Industrial officer Katrina Currie said: "Unite has no option but to respond to the gross financial mismanagement which has shaken Dundee University to its foundations.

"Under no circumstances will we allow compulsory redundancies to take place because the workers are blameless, and they should not have to pay the price for incompetence."

Ms Currie said a government-backed taskforce should be set up to deal with the issue, describing the Scottish Funding Council investigation into the cause of the crisis as "insufficient".

The university's incoming rector, Scottish Greens MSP Maggie Chapman, described the jobs losses as "worse than expected".

Prof O'Neill warned some courses could have modules reduced at undergraduate and postgraduate levels.

Those would likely come from the Business, Life Sciences, Humanities, Geography, Art and Design, Computing, Mathematics and Physics departments.

The university has put the five-bedroom home previously used by its former principal on the market in a bid to raise some funding.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: "Unite will do everything industrially, legally and politically possible to protect the livelihoods of hundreds of workers at Dundee University.

"The situation is in danger of spiralling out of control, with the very existence of the university now at risk without government intervention.

"Unite will support our members every step of the way in defence of their jobs."

A spokesman for the university said: "The decision by Unite to ballot its members, while we continue to develop a revised recovery plan, is hugely disappointing.

"We have continued to engage and work constructively with the campus unions throughout what is a highly complex process, dialogue that we feel has been constructive for all parties.

"We will do all we can to mitigate the effects on our students of any industrial action."