University of Sussex (UCU) Strike Calendar

Staff at the University of Sussex are being asked to vote yes for strike action in a ballot that opened today and will run until Thursday 13 August. The ballot is over plans to cut 200 jobs and comes after more than 600 staff were put at risk of redundancy across academic, technical and professional services departments. Management says it needs to save £35m in annual costs due to a fall in student numbers and has refused to rule out compulsory redundancies despite more than 500 staff having already left Sussex over the past two years.

Sussex UCU is putting forward proposals that would avoid the need for compulsory redundancies, protect jobs and support student learning. These include allowing staff to volunteer to move part-time and working to bring down the amount spent on the pay of senior management. Senior management's pay bill is over £3m a year, and over the last few years new senior managerial roles have been created while staff have been taken out of frontline teaching.