Voluntary Severance Scheme launched in Humanities and Modern Languages
A Voluntary Severance Scheme was launched today, 6th February, in Humanities and Modern Languages, here is a video that sets out UCU Bristol’s take on it and the general state of the university.
Please share widely in whatever groups or platforms you use with colleagues, whether union members or not.
Transcript script is below:
Hello,
This is a message to Bristol UCU members, as well as a message encouraging those who are not yet members to become so. You can join here https://www.ucu.org.uk/join
Today, academic staff in Humanities and Modern Languages have been offered Voluntary Severance. This follows on from a 3 week window in which Professional Services Staff in IT were also offered Voluntary Severance.
Since this time last year, we have warned that the university of Bristol’s approach to the crisis in Higher Education funding will have an uneven effect across the institution. That cuts will be made little by little, here and there, and that part of the reason for that is to avoid headlines.
Such cuts started in 2025 and are accelerating in 2026. Shit is getting real. If you’re an academic, this takes the form of the 50% surplus. If you’re in Professional Services, it takes the form of the Professional Services Transformation Programme. If one of these have not come knocking on your door already, chances are they will.
As union branch officers, we have drawn a line in the sand of when we will call for strike action. This line lies at Compulsory Redundancies. This is what we successfully did last year in CALD. Now, we have made very clear to university management that we would do the same again if Compulsory Redundancies are proposed in any academic school or in any Professional Services area where we have good density and can make good on that threat.
Therefore, our message to staff in this university, whether union members or not, is this: You are as strong and protected as the number of union members you have around you in your part of the university. So if you’re sitting in DREI or Library Services, wondering when PSTP will come knocking on your door, join a union, and make sure that your colleagues do too.
Going back to the Voluntary Severance schemes, these bespoke schemes do not look the same. What was offered in IT was 6 months pay. What is offered in Humanities and Modern Languages is 9 months pay. This is all regardless of length of service, which means that the shorter you’ve been here, the more attractive these packages are. The university line is that these packages are different because different professions have different job prospects.
Our message is that these voluntary means are brought in to avoid the strike action that compulsory redundancies would lead to. Therefore, the higher the union density, the stronger the threat of strike action, the more important to the university that voluntary measures are successful, the better the voluntary package will look.
After the CALD dispute, we encouraged the university to always use voluntary means before considering compulsory ones. But voluntary severance is an employer tool and not something that any union can or should negotiate about. That is, no voluntary severance package can be good enough for us to say that we won’t go on strike for the next year or whatever.
On our strong critique of the university’s demand for all schools to reach 50% surplus, it must be noted that the two schools now being offered voluntary severance are the two schools with the highest percentage of Home students. Whilst this logic is driven by the marketisation of our sector, it is the university’s choice to decide that subjects catering primarily to Home students must suffer. That is, the university could and should do more cross-subsidising than it is currently prepared to do. The higher price that international students pay, should not actually mean that they deserve a better education for it. This is a choice that university management are making and they could make a different choice.
So, watch this space! Join a union! Get your colleagues to join a union!