Keele success over greylisting threat

Industrial action by members of the UCU lecturers’ union at Keele University and a proposed boycott (“greylisting”) of the institution were suspended last month when an interim agreement covering the School of Economic and Management Studies (SEMS) and the Centre for Health Planning and Management (CHPM) was reached.

The union expects this to mean that the university would be able to avoid compulsory redundancies, although if management did not conduct the negotiations in the agreed spirit, sanctions could be reinstated.

UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said that the episode should serve as a warning that the union would not allow institutions to treat staff unfairly or disregard their own standards and procedures, (see April Labour Research).