University strike at Telford campus to delay exam results
Hundreds of students at the University of Wolverhampton could see their exam results delayed following strike action today.
Members of the University and College Union (UCU) were due to walk out this morning at campuses in Telford, Walsall and Wolverhampton in the latest action in the ongoing row over pay and conditions.
The strike – which union bosses say has been planned to cause "maximum disruption" – coincides with a series of exam board meetings where staff classify degrees before students' final results are signed off.
It is the latest in a series of walkouts and means students in five university departments may not receive their degrees on time. The dispute follows a 1.1 per cent pay offer branded "derisory" by union bosses, who say the university has failed to address a real terms pay cut of 14.5 per cent since 2009.
UCU representative Ben Andrews said the aim of the strike was to cause maximum disruption to the system. His colleague, Catherine Lamond, added: "University staff can no longer put up with the continued squeeze on their income.
"We have suffered years of real-terms pay cuts, constant demands to do more for less and an increase in the numbers of staff being employed on the type of contracts you would expect to find in Sports Direct, not at a university."
UCU members have accused the university's vice-chancellor Geoff Layer of "hypocrisy" after it emerged he had received a pay increase of 19.6 per cent. Mr Layer wrote to members of staff expressing disappointment over their intention to strike at the end of May. He also set out his support of the 1.1 per cent pay offer from UCEA.
Mrs Lamond added: "Industrial action is always a last resort, but clearly universities have little understanding of the problems staff face. At Wolverhampton we have a vice-chancellor defending the paltry one per cent pay offer while pocketing a 20 per cent hike himself. Enough is enough."
James Allen, spokesman at the University of Wolverhampton, said: "The university has been informed of the planned UCU industrial action on June 22, 2016 as part of an ongoing national pay dispute.
"It is disappointing that UCU has not put the latest pay offer to their members and decided instead to follow a course of industrial action."
