Work to rule at Liverpool over ‘rank and yank’ cuts

Union members at the University of Liverpool are set to work to rule for up to five months in a row over job cuts.

The University and College Union (UCU) said that it expected 1,290 staff to work only their contracted hours and boycott all voluntary activities as part of the action, which is due to start on 10 May.

Members are prepared to take further action before the end of term, including strikes and a marking and assessment boycott, if their demands are not met, UCU said.

Ninety per cent of Liverpool UCU members backed industrial action in a ballot earlier this month, triggered by the university’s plan to cut 47 jobs from its Faculty of Health and Life Sciences. International experts on the responsible use of research metrics have criticised the institution for identifying staff for redundancy based on research grant income and citation impact scores.

Anthony O’Hanlon, the UCU branch president at Liverpool, said that staff were “furious that the university is proceeding with this senseless attack on jobs”.

“We have a mandate to take sustained industrial action and this boycott of working outside contracted hours by more than 1,000 staff will be followed by further action unless the university stops threatening our colleagues’ livelihoods,” he said.

The union has likened Liverpool’s methodology for identifying at-risk staff to the “rank and yank” management approach used by firms such as Amazon to make cuts.

Martyn Moss, a UCU regional official, said the university’s “absurd methodology” had “led to the biggest vote for industrial action in the branch’s history”.

“Staff are completely committed to fighting the cuts. If the university refuses to end its brutal attack on jobs, staff are also willing to boycott all marking and assessments and go on strike before the end of term,” he said.

A Liverpool spokeswoman said that the proposed redundancies were “part of a wider restructure to enable reinvestment in areas of specialism and increase academic quality and the societal impact of the faculty’s research and expertise”.

“The university remains engaged in collective consultation with our trade unions over the proposals and this period has already been extended to allow for further discussion. It is regrettable that UCU has now called for industrial action before the consultation process has even concluded,” the spokeswoman said.

“We recognise that any period of industrial action will be a cause of concern for our staff and students and every effort is being made to resolve the dispute. The university has processes in place to help keep any disruption to a minimum and we are keeping our staff and students regularly informed.”

chris.havergal@timeshighereducation.com