University strikes: UCU to 'pause' industrial action

Some staff at Queen's University Belfast and Ulster University began 18 days of strike action on 1 February

Seven days of planned strikes by some staff at universities in Northern Ireland will not now go ahead.

The University and College Union (UCU) has said that strike action has been "paused" until 2 March.

The union said "significant progress" had been made in talks with university employers.

The University and College Employers Association (UCEA) also said progress had been made in talks with unions.

Some staff at Queen's University Belfast (QUB) and Ulster University (UU) began 18 days of strike action on 1 February.

Lecturers and other staff on the picket lines at both universities said they had faced years of real-terms pay cuts.

They also said that the rising cost of living had affected them and their families.

The walkout marked the latest and most extensive industrial action in a long-running dispute over pay, working conditions and pensions.

The dispute between the UCU and university employers has been a long-running one

Members of the UCU at QUB, UU and more than 100 other universities in the UK have since staged strikes on a further five days, most recently Thursday 16 February.

It is not clear exactly how many classes and lectures have been cancelled during the strikes.

But the UCU - which has hundreds of members at both QUB and UU - has now said that strikes planned for 21, 22, 23, 27 and 28 February and 1 and 2 March will not go ahead.

However five further days of strikes planned for later in March are still on.

The UCU said that pausing strikes would "create a period of calm".

'Final attempt'

"We want to make it absolutely clear that this is simply a pause," said the UCU.

However the union said that progress had been made in negotiations over pay and pensions, as well as moves to end "involuntary zero hours contracts" in universities.

The UCU says planned strikes on several dates in March will still go ahead

The UCU also said that further talks would take place with UCEA and Universities UK.

The UCEA, which represents 144 higher education institutions, including QUB and UU, said it recognised "the urgent inflationary pressures currently facing all staff".

It said it had made a "final pay offer of between 8% and 5% from August 2023 with a proportion of that to be paid from February, some six months in advance of the usual pay uplift date".

It also said further talks would take place with university unions on pay spines, workload and types of staff contract.

"While the impact of strike action continues to be low and isolated, this is about a final attempt from employers and trade unions to achieve an outcome upon which both parties can consult their members," said UCEA chief executive Raj Jethwa.

UCU members had previously been out on strike a number of times in recent years.