University of Liverpool staff call off strike action

Staff and supporters gathered outside the university on the first day of strike action

Staff at the University of Liverpool have called off strike action after a dispute over redundancies was resolved.

Members of the University and College Union (UCU) at the university's Faculty of Health and Life Sciences began 10 days of industrial action on Monday.

UCU said it had secured enhanced redundancy terms and nobody had been made redundant against their will.

The university said it was pleased students "will not have to endure further disruption".

Plans for 47 redundancies, first announced in January, were reduced to two after earlier industrial action.

About 1,300 staff went on a three-week strike in May, followed by an ongoing marking and assessment boycott, which was supported by the Guild of Students.

Fresh talks this week between the union and management saw new voluntary redundancy terms agreed and the removal of the threat of a compulsory job loss for one of those employees.

A statement from the union said that, as a result of its long-running campaign, "not one compulsory redundancy has been made to a UCU member" and 26 posts had been saved.

Meanwhile the UCU said an "enhanced voluntary severance package" had allowed some of its members to leave the university "with greater security than the university wanted to afford them".

Liverpool Guild of Students supported the union

A University of Liverpool statement said: "Following an approach made by University and College Union (UCU) regional officers to the University's Senior Leadership Team this week, agreement was reached [on Thursday] to enable two colleagues to reconsider our offer of voluntary severance and leave on the same terms as other individuals who have recently left.

"This includes one colleague who had previously been issued with a notice of compulsory redundancy.

"We are pleased that UCU revisited the proposal originally put forward by the University in May to enable colleagues to leave on these terms and that as a result, our students will not have to endure further disruption next week."