Where do the 59 potential redundancies fall? 

On 25 April, HR sent the campus trade unions a revised s188 notice, which an employer is required to send by law when they plan to make 20 or more employees redundant within a period of 90 days. That notice now reads 59. 

These 59 potential redundancies currently fall within the following departments:

• ITS, including the service desk and the Technology Enhanced Learning Team. Colleagues in these teams have not been given access to the Voluntary Severance Scheme (VSS). In response, members in these teams got organised and won an improved Enhanced Voluntary Redundancy offer, but this still falls short of the VSS package offered to staff in other departments. The proposed restructure will see service desk jobs  outsourced to a company headquartered in Serbia. At this moment in time, when universities are made to teach with ever more digital technology, we’re losing the in-house experts. 
• PGR coordinators in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. The Faculty used to have a dedicated PGR coordinator in each School, who supported students and staff with the application process, enrolment, administration, and operational needs, as well as with disciplinary knowledge of grants and contacts in the sector. The current proposal regrades roles and merges their responsibilities so that instead of eight individuals there will only be five. The consultation is currently live. If you want to get involved in union organising for the consultation please email membership@qmucu.org
• Professional Services Education Team in the Faculty of Science and Engineering. At the end of April, PS staff in Science & Engineering were told they were being moved to a format of ‘hubs and spokes’, reducing the number of roles and chiselling away School autonomy. Posts are being regraded and managers moved to operational roles. The consultation is currently live. If you want to get involved in union organising for the consultation please email membership@qmucu.org.

Those are the jobs that are currently at risk of being lost. The number 59 does not include the colleagues who left last year (ca. 60) and are leaving this year through the Voluntary Severance Scheme. Nor does it include the vacancies that are not being filled. The trade unions have been told this number is very likely to go up, as further restructure consultations are launched throughout the summer, including the University-wide Professional Service Operating Model, and the merger of the Schools of History, Geography, and Politics & International Relations.