Salford staff strike over sackings

University and College Union members at the University of Salford have taken strike action in protest at the sacking of two colleagues.

On 22 April, the UCU announced that 75 per cent of union members had voted to strike the next day to protest that the employment contracts of two colleagues had been terminated without possibility of appeal. The two staff members were suspended in December 2014.

A UCU representative explained to Research Fortnight that two members of the university’s marketing and student recruitment department had been put on gardening leave following a dispute over strategies to be adopted by the department. The day after that, a restructuring of the department was announced in which their positions were made redundant. Alternative posts were offered elsewhere at the university but the UCU said that this appeared to be an effort to "squeeze the staff members out".