Queen Mary is undergoing a process of transformation by a thousand cuts, including: Professional Service programme of change, automating and outsourcing IT services, merging academic schools and withdrawing programmes, targeted voluntary severance.

These cuts are being rushed through, without assessing the risks to the university of hollowing out faculties, outsourcing, or automation; and without care for the unsafe working conditions of staff. 

It doesn’t have to be like this. As a baseline, any changes from management should begin in good faith. QMUCU and QMUnison are working together with members to get good faith negotiations.

This page is a live page keeping together all material and information about our campagn.

  1. Our Demands
  2. Campaign timeline
  3. Current number of possible redundancies
  4. More info

Our Demands

We ask management to immediately commit to job protection principles during any changes:

  • No compulsory redundancies for at least 2 years
  • Increased voluntary pay exit available to all (with notice period added on top of current VSS offer)
  • Stop outsourcing in-house roles
  • Cap senior salaries at £100,000

Campaign timeline

  1. Join your union
  2. Vote in the indicative ballot by 28 April: we need a sense of numbers and commitment from members before we can move to a formal ballot
  3. Vote in the formal postal ballot that will follow if the indicative ballot is successful.
  4. Join industrial action if the postal ballot reaches the 50% response threshold and 50% YES.

Current number of possible redundancies

Possible redundancies keep trickling in. At the end of April 2025, the official number HR had to notify about stood at 59. This excludes Voluntary Severance, vacancies that aren’t being filled, and colleagues who left last Summer. The potential redundancies currently fall in:

  • ITS, including the service desk and the Technology Enhanced Learning Team.
  • PGR coordinators in the Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences. 
  • Professional Services Education Team in the Faculty of Science and Engineering.

More info