This motion was passed at a quorate AGM on Thursday, 11 June.

Yes: 100%

This branch notes:

1. That five colleagues in Modern Languages have received formal notice of risk of redundancy, with consultation running 4 June – 3 August 2026.
2. The rationale for the redundancy is the closure of a PGT programme, the decision based on declining student numbers over the last two years.
3. That this forms part of a programme of restructures across the institution.

This branch believes:

1. That the selection pool is unfairly and too narrowly drawn, and that the outcome appears predetermined.
2. That the equality impact assessment is deficient or absent, and that those affected fall within a recognisable equality pattern.
3. That a redundancy rationale which coexists with plans to reshape and continue the same provision does not withstand scrutiny.
4. That these jobs can and should be defended through collective action.

This branch resolves to mandate the committee to:

1. Ask that the University rule out compulsory redundancies for the affected staff, and across the wider restructure programme, with redeployment, voluntary severance, and natural turnover exhausted first.
2. Ask for the dissolution of the pool.
3. Register a failure to agree and formal dispute through JNCC if above are exhausted.
4. Prepare, if the dispute remains unresolved, for a consultative ballot followed by a statutory ballot for action short of strike and/or strike action to save jobs.