Union members at Sheffield Hallam University are to strike over management’s decision to delay the implementation of this year’s pay award.
Members of the University and College Union at the south Yorkshire post-92 will walk out on 24 and 25 March.
This year’s rise of a minimum of 2.7 per cent was imposed nationally by the Universities and Colleges Employers Association, with an initial £900 due in last August’s pay packets, but institutions were able to delay the rise by up to 11 months if they claimed financial exigency.
Times Higher Education reported previously that the number of universities which had said that they were unable to afford the increase straight away had hit a record high.
Sheffield Hallam’s UCU branch said that the university had refused to implement the pay award until this month, after members had backed a ballot for strike action.
The branch said that managers should agree to pay staff their “seven months of lost earnings”, and have planned the strike in a bid to force this.
UCU complained that, despite Sheffield Hallam claiming that it could not afford the pay rise, it is pushing ahead with a £220 million estates programme plus a London branch campus.
“Our members are striking because Sheffield Hallam is acting like a rogue employer. By refusing to fully implement the nationally agreed pay award, Hallam bosses are effectively stealing tens of thousands of pounds from their workforce,” said Jo Grady, UCU’s general secretary.
“We refuse to accept that Hallam can invest hundreds of millions of pounds in shiny new buildings yet can’t afford to meet the nationally agreed pay award, as every other university in Yorkshire was able to. Management needs to think again, or it is laying the groundwork for further disruption.”
UCU members at Sheffield Hallam had previously voted for strike action at the start of the academic year over job cuts, but this was called off after negotiations with managers.
The university reported a £3.5 million operating deficit for 2023-24, following a £1.1 million shortfall the year before. It also spent £17.5 million on severance pay last year.
A Sheffield Hallam spokeswoman said that the university was “disappointed” by the vote for strike action but would seek to minimise the impact on students.
“Like all universities, we have had to make tough decisions due to the well-documented financial challenges being faced across the higher education sector. One of those was to implement the annual nationally negotiated pay award for staff later than in previous years, in order to significantly reduce costs and protect jobs,” the spokeswoman said.
“With the overall financial picture for universities likely to be challenging for some time, we must continue to make the difficult choices required to reduce costs and increase income, in order to emerge in a stronger, sustainable position for the future.”
Members of the university’s executive board are not receiving a pay rise this year.
