Tuesday 14 July 2009

Fund row lecturers strike again (BBC)

Irritatingly, the BBC seem to have missed half the story completely: that UNISON members were also on strike today. *Note to editors* - not just 'lecturers' keep the universities running, and the core staff were also on strike today...

Fund row lecturers strike again (BBC)


Striking lecturers are threatening to bring a north London university "to a standstill" in a row over job cuts.

Staff at the London Metropolitan University (LMU) in Holloway want Business Secretary Lord Mandelson to hold an inquiry into redundancy plans.

More than 300 of LMU's 4,612 staff will be asked to take voluntary redundancy, and strikers say up to 550 posts will eventually be cut.

The university has said it aims to keep compulsory redundancies to a minimum.

LMU says it needs to cut costs after being told to repay £50m when it emerged more students dropped out than thought. The university has previously said strikes are "not the answer".

Those responsible for the current mess must be held accountable, not the staff
Sally Hunt, UCU

But Sally Hunt, of the University and College Union (UCU), said: "The situation at London Met is a nightmare and members don't want be taking industrial action.

"However, it is not acceptable for management to punish the staff for their mistakes."

She said: "Those responsible for the current mess must be held accountable, not the staff, and once again I call upon the Government to hold a fully independent public inquiry."

3 comments:

  1. Email sent to BBC Online.



    Re: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/london/8149153.stm


    I would like to point out a number of serious factual inaccuracies in your current report on the strike/crisis at London Metropolitan University.

    The strike was a joint UCU (lecturers union) and UNISON (admin staff union) as the job threats are to both admin and lecturing staff.

    There are 3,600 actual members of staff not 4,800 as claimed (the 4,800 figure includes 1,200 HPL staff that have not had paid work over the last 12 months but are still kept on the books - to pad the figures of total staff compliment - under disgraceful 'zero-hour' contracts);

    Of those 3,600 staff members there are only 2,400 FTE (Full-Time Equivalent) staff (i.e., many of the 3,600 are part-time staff).

    550 FTE (i.e., almost 25%) are the total number of job losses planned between now and July 2010. 330 FTE of these will be by a combination of voluntary and compulsory redundancy. The remaining 220 FTE through 'natural wastage' non filling of posts and retirements.

    104 FTE have been accepted for voluntary redundancy this year and are scheduled to leave on 31st July 2009.

    A further 80 applicants for voluntary redundancy were refused and have been explicitly told they are still vulnerable to being made compulsorily redundant by July 2010.

    Management have stated that no further rounds of voluntary redundancies are planned and that all subsequent job losses (i.e., at least 226 FTE) will be via compulsory redundancy paid on statutory minimum terms.

    Kind regards

    Mark Campbell
    Chair - UCU London Metropolitan University
    UCU National Executive

    ReplyDelete
  2. why is the mangment not getting done for fraud?
    if it was a normal person he/she would be in court by now?
    i think there is a lot to answer.
    and you get ppl like dave butler saying i got job next year stuff you lot.that good mangment?

    ReplyDelete