In October 2024, more than 170 individuals were placed at risk of redundancy as a consequence of Phase Two of the Resilience & Institutional Sustainability Exercise (RISE), with staff from every faculty and some Professional Services Departments effected.
Through the hard work of the UCU and UNISON elected representatives and regional officials, as well as the collective activism of their members, the impact of the proposed drastic organisational restructure was significantly mitigated. Seven staff members were served notice of compulsory redundancy and UCU secured a discretionary payment for staff, who by losing above 20% of their posts, were made partially redundant.
Evidence indicates that trade union members have exited the consultation process in a better position than non-members. The majority of the 18 accepted counterproposals received during the collective consultation period came from UCU members, many of whom utilised support from UON UCU to enhance their proposals. Also, several members, represented by trade union representatives, negotiated enhanced job offers.
While the positive impact of UCU and UNISON should not be understated, it is important to remember staff who have suffered and been negatively affected by a situation that could have been avoided. Decisions made by previous members of the University Leadership Team, including in relation to a bond guaranteed by Her Majesty’s Treasury to build the Waterside Campus, have led to the University being required to generate far more cash to remain compliant with its terms. The previous University leadership was warned by UCU in 2014 that the bond repayments made the University susceptible to fluctuations in student recruitment. However, this advice was unheeded. In fact, the University governing body at the time dismissed a vote of no confidence in members of the University Leadership Team held by UON UCU, as the bond instrument was underwritten by the UK Infrastructure Guarantee Scheme, meaning the UK government would repay the debt if the University was unable to do so. It is worrying to think that higher education leaders who make such catastrophic decisions are able to continue their career without consequence, while others are made to pay the price for their poor judgement.
Direct appeals to all Northamptonshire MPs from UCU and UNISON, asking them to facilitate renegotiation of the bond with the Treasury to reduce risk of the government needing to repay the debt, have gone unheard. This is despite the Northampton South MP stating in Parliament that the University generated £823 million in GVA for the UK economy and supported 10,610 jobs during 2023/24. It is unlikely that the University will be able to sustain this economic impact following the conclusion of RISE. It must also be noted that the Northampton South MP is part of Labour’s ‘Get Britain Working Group’. So, it is ironic that they have not helped prevent job losses in their constituency while being part of this group.
UON UCU remains committed to defending its members and wishes to work in partnership with UON leadership when possible, to protect student experience, the ongoing viability of the University and to create a working environment we all feel proud to be part of. While University Leadership is confident that Phase 2 of RISE has controlled expenditure, and it is pleasing to learn about the reopening of Professor and Associate Professor teaching and research applications and the Lecturer to Senior Lecturer progression pathway, UON UCU remains concerned about the future of the University given that the size of the workforce is lower following voluntary severance schemes and redundancies. Especially as plans for Phase 3 of RISE are still to be announced and the government is yet to intervene to fix the broken fee-based funding model causing crisis across the higher education sector. If UON decides that further cuts following RISE are required, it is highly likely that the branch will ballot for all forms of industrial action.
