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Uni staff strike called off in notice row
Union forced to abandon industrial action as college claims it was not informed of protest
THE hostile relationship between staff and management at London Metropolitan University took a dramatic turn for the worse yesterday (Thursday) after a full-scale strike was abandoned at the last minute.
Managers claim they did not receive legal notification of the planned industrial action – which was set to close the university’s Holloway campus for the second time in two months.
The planned protest followed a ballot of Unison trade union members over proposals to axe at least 550 full-time posts at the university.
Union chiefs say they faxed through notice of the strike in the correct way and had a verbal acknowledgement from management – but LMU deny they were properly informed and say that the action would have been unlawful.
Vicky Easton, head of local government in Unison’s Greater London region, said: “The employer is insisting that they were not notified of the strike, even though we contacted them correctly. We have done our best to ensure that we have complied with the legal procedure. But we cannot be certain our members will not be victimised, so have had to cancel.”
Union rules mean employers must be told one week in advance of any strike action. The normal process is to fax a notice and await for a response by telephone.
The strike of around 1,000 union members at the university was called off at 7pm on Wednesday.
Maggie Ferncombe, Unison’s regional manager for higher education, added: “We did speak to someone, but we did not take their name and have no proof that would stand up if their was a legal challenge.”
LMU was plunged into crisis after it was found to have wrongly claimed more than £34m for students who had not completed courses. The university, which has a 97 per cent intake from state schools, has been ordered to pay back the funding by the Higher Education Funding Council for England (Hefce).
Former vice-chancellor Brian Roper, who left in April, devised an action plan to create a list of academic and staff posts to be “deleted” in the scramble to claw back the funding. It means entire departments will be shut down. The unions argue staff and lecturers should not be punished for financial mismanagement.
The University College Union (UCU), which represents lecturers at LMU, called off their simultaneous strike action “in solidarity with their brothers” at Unison. Both unions are planning to strike again within three weeks.
UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said: “There must be an urgent overhaul of governance and management at LMU before any compulsory redundancies take effect.
“It is a disgrace that hard working and talented staff are being axed for the failings of senior management.”
An LMU spokeswoman said: “We can confirm that strike action at London Met has been called off. The university did not receive notice of the proposed action seven days ahead of the proposed action taking place as required in law and informed Unison of this. It was Unison’s decision to withdraw from industrial action.” |
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