The University of Wales, Trinity St David has written to all teaching and support members of staff asking them to consider voluntary redundancy. Although, a target number of applicants has not been publicised, UNISON says the university hopes to make savings of around ten percent across its expenditure. It would be reasonable to assume compulsory redundancies are inevitable if the university does not receive enough volunteers.
UNISON’s Hugh McDyer said,
“We know there are big changes ahead at the university and a likely merger of sites. We’ll work with them to identify savings if they need to be made but that should not be at the cost of frontline workers. An obvious start would be to stop recruiting highly paid management staff. Over the last few years more senior managers have been recruited on lucrative contracts leaving fewer staff to teach and support students. Many support staff earn near to the minimum wage and zero hours contracts and agency work are still common practice.
“It is essential the quality of learning and student support is protected and we want the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, to be open and honest about the scale of the challenge it faces and engage constructively with UNISON to minimise any impact on staff.”
UNISON’s Simon Dunn said,
“We recognise the financial challenges being faced by a number of universities in Wales, with the recent news of significant job losses in the University of South Wales. Given the economic value of higher education to Wales and local communities, we call on Welsh Government to consider how universities are responding to these challenges, and whether some form of intervention is necessary.”