Context
Members of Durham UCU recently voted in favour of industrial action in response to cost-saving measures that are required to ensure the University’s financial sustainability.
The University aims to achieve the necessary financial savings by voluntary measures, and we have been consistently emphatic about this. However, we are not able to rule out the need for compulsory redundancies to put us in a more sustainable financial position.
It is likely to be mid-May before we know if we have done enough to achieve the required savings through voluntary severance. This timeline has been shared with our four campus trade unions, including Durham UCU, and our staff.
We appreciate the patience of our University community during what we know is an unsettling time.
It is disappointing that Durham UCU has chosen to take industrial action ahead of it being known whether we have achieved our financial savings through voluntary measures.
This action is unnecessary at a time when we are trying hard to make savings through voluntary means and as we let staff know about the outcomes of their voluntary severance applications.
Dates and type of industrial action
Five days of strike action are planned on Monday 28, Tuesday 29, Wednesday 30 April, Thursday 1 and Friday 2 May 2025.
We expect most learning and assessment activities to proceed as usual during this week. Not all academic staff are members of UCU and of those who are, not all will take part in the strikes.
In addition to strike action, some staff will be taking part in Action Short of a Strike (ASOS) from Monday 28 April. ASOS will comprise ‘not working more than the nominal hours specified in employment contracts, not undertaking voluntary duties, not providing cover for absent colleagues, not providing cover for non-replaced staff, boycotting University-related activities relating to the Research Excellence Framework.’
On Friday 25 April, Durham UCU gave the University notice of further continuous action short of strike (ASOS) comprising of a marking and assessment boycott. The boycott will start on 12th May 2025. This latest threatened action is not only unnecessary but will also unsettle students as they start the examination period. We would urge the local branch of UCU seriously to reconsider this threat, especially with students in mind.
Any boycott will create significant extra burdens for Professional Service staff at a very difficult time. It will likely slow down responses to voluntary severance applications as both industrial action and the voluntary severance process are managed by the same small teams of colleagues.
Support for our students, including mitigations for industrial action
The University will continue to ensure our students are appropriately supported and to minimise any impact on those who are affected by this action.
We wrote to all students on Thursday 24 April 2025 via their University email account to provide an update.
All students should assume that classes or assessments will be held as scheduled. They will be contacted directly by their department if classes or assessments are to be rescheduled due to strike action.
The University will continue to provide updates regularly via this page. Students can stay up to date via our internal industrial action SharePoint pages. A link to the pages was included in the email of Thursday 24 April, along with details of where students may seek support, should they need it.
If there are further developments, we will continue to keep our community informed.
/prod01/prodbucket01/media/durham-university/external-location-photography-/campus-shots-/71753.jpg)