{"id":644873,"date":"2025-12-20T20:35:32","date_gmt":"2025-12-20T20:35:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/644873\/"},"modified":"2025-12-20T20:35:32","modified_gmt":"2025-12-20T20:35:32","slug":"major-breakthrough-in-edinburgh-university-redundancy-dispute","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/644873\/","title":{"rendered":"Major breakthrough in Edinburgh University redundancy dispute"},"content":{"rendered":"

THE University and College Union (UCU)<\/a>\u00a0has\u00a0announced\u00a0a major breakthrough\u00a0in negotiations with the University of Edinburgh<\/a>, with further strike action averted<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The university agreed to not pursue any compulsory redundancies before July 2026, with UCU, in return, promising that no further strike action will be taken in this dispute.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This follows a string of strikes at Edinburgh University<\/a>, with three days of strikes in November as well as action in September, and a one-day walkout in June, but further strikes will be suspended until at least April.\u00a0<\/p>\n

This was in response to a \u00a3140m package of cuts announced by the university amid what they described as severe financial difficulties.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Students<\/a>Students and lecturers braved the cold last month to express their support for striking lecturers at Edinburgh Uni (C) Deadline News<\/p>\n

The University of Edinburgh said after the cuts were announced that \u201cradical university-wide actions, which will lead to a smaller staff base and lower operating costs\u201d were\u00a0required.\u00a0<\/p>\n

It did,\u00a0however, commit to no compulsory redundancies in a statement on the action in September.\u00a0<\/p>\n

That commitment has now been made official following intense negotiations with UCU representatives.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The deal, which includes concessions from both sides, was handled by the local UCU negotiation team and debated at length at a UCU Edinburgh branch meeting.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The ballot for the deal was only narrowly passed, and UCU says this reflects the unease with which many lecturers and university staff still view their employer and grave concerns which\u00a0remain\u00a0about the situation.\u00a0<\/p>\n

UCU have also stressed that there is still work to be done to reach a comprehensive settlement in this dispute.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The announcement of the breakthrough in Edinburgh came simultaneously with an announcement of the resolution of a dispute at the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI).\u00a0<\/p>\n

UCU general secretary, Jo Grady, said:\u00a0 \u201cI want to congratulate the local branch negotiators at both Edinburgh and UHI branches for the careful negotiations they have held with their respective employers, and to pay tribute to the efforts of our members in withdrawing their labour to force employers to the negotiating tables.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is heartening to see the progress made in both universities, to get concrete wins for members and to improve job security.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is clear that in Edinburgh the battle is far from over, and that members remain suspicious of their employer, and need to be convinced that the employer is committed to working with UCU in the best interests of staff, students and education at the university.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cUCU is also clear that Edinburgh University does not need to make the level of cuts planned, but there are benefits to be had by sitting round the table with the employer in the next couple of months negotiating to get a better deal for workers.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cMembers should have confidence in their local negotiators, in the knowledge that the branch does have a strong mandate for further strike action or even a marking and assessment boycott, should the employer back track on its side of this deal.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

UCU have made that negotiations in Edinburgh will continue over the coming months, and that much more work needs to be done to come to a final settlement.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Their commitment to no further strike action only extends to 29 April, when their current ballot mandate ends.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Professor Sir Peter Mathieson, principal and vice-chancellor of the University of Edinburgh, said: \u201cWe welcome the decision by UCU Edinburgh members to accept our offer, which will ensure no further industrial action is taken throughout the mandate period, up to 28 April.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cThis agreement brings stability for our students and staff, safeguarding teaching,\u00a0assessments\u00a0and research from disruption.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs financial pressures across the sector persist, we remain committed to taking the steps necessary to secure the long-term future of the university.\u201d<\/p>\n

There had been calls for the Scottish Government to step in and scrutinise the accounts of the university, with members of the Education, Children, and Families Committee expressing a desire to question both the university and unions on the cuts.\u00a0<\/p>\n

UCU has undertaken a total of nine strike days in 2025.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"THE University and College Union (UCU)\u00a0has\u00a0announced\u00a0a major breakthrough\u00a0in negotiations with the University of Edinburgh, with further strike action…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":644874,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8816],"tags":[748,1102,197962,197963,197964,33880,2266,4884,712,197965,7101,37866,197966,16,34004,15,23411],"class_list":{"0":"post-644873","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-edinburgh","8":"tag-britain","9":"tag-edinburgh","10":"tag-edinburgh-strikes","11":"tag-edinburgh-uni","12":"tag-edinburgh-uni-strikes","13":"tag-edinburgh-university","14":"tag-education","15":"tag-great-britain","16":"tag-scotland","17":"tag-strike-negotiations","18":"tag-strikes","19":"tag-ucu","20":"tag-ucu-strikes","21":"tag-uk","22":"tag-unions","23":"tag-united-kingdom","24":"tag-university-of-edinburgh"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115753813738873277","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644873","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=644873"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/644873\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/644874"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=644873"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=644873"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=644873"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}