Dear BUCU members,

We are very pleased to be able to report that we are now in a position to reach an agreement with the University management over compulsory redundancies, redundancy avoidance, and performance management. This therefore marks the end of our current industrial dispute.

The meeting scheduled for 1pm today has therefore been cancelled, as have the scheduled strike days for tomorrow and Thursday, and the branch committee have adopted the following resolution on behalf of the branch (as mandated by the last members’ meeting).

Resolution: BUCU welcomes the agreements reached with the University of Birmingham around redundancies, redundancy avoidance, and performance management, and therefore agrees to withdraw the proposed industrial action.

This has been a major campaign for our branch, and we have made significant advances in each of the areas that we have been negotiating with the University senior management. Full details of the agreements will be circulated shortly.

We intend for this to mark a new and more engaged relationship with the University management, with BUCU playing an important role as the recognised union representing all academic and academic-related staff at this University.

These achievements wouldn’t have been possible without the invaluable, extensive, tireless and ongoing advice and support from both the regional and national UCU officers and the branch administrator along with the work of many other regional and national UCU officers. We also need to thank all of the elected branch officers and committee members who have invested a huge amount of time and energy in the campaign.

Most importantly, this is a reflection of our entire membership’s ability as a branch to work together to achieve positive outcomes for employees at this University – it’s an achievement therefore that we must continue to work on to further advance the capacity and role of our University of Birmingham branch of UCU.