Heriot-Watt University (UCU) Strike Calendar

Members of UCU at Heriot-Watt University today begin two days of strike action in a dispute over job cuts and possible compulsory redundancies. Staff will be on picket lines during the morning at the main entrance to the university campus. Staff at the university have taken 10 days of strike action since March but recent strikes planned for June were called off in last minute talks when a commitment was made for no compulsory redundancies in the Department of Languages and Intercultural Studies before spring 2027. The union said that the promise has not been kept and that management were now looking at possible compulsory redundancies. The union said that management reneging on promises meant that the strikes were inevitable and the fault of management.

Jobs are also being cut at the long-running Scholar programme which provides web-based learning to schools and which is facing closure. Despite more staff at Scholar applying for voluntary redundancy than management were looking for, there remain plans for compulsory redundancies there too. As well as taking two days of strike action, members are also voting in a ballot to extend the mandate for industrial action. The new ballot, which ends on 12 August, is necessary because mandates for strike action are time limited. Recent changes to trade union legislation means that the new ballot would last for a full 12 months leaving the threat of further strikes at the university into the 2026/27 academic year likely.