In 2017, the Industrial Tribunal ruled that Ulster University had breached the Employment Rights Order (NI) by failing to consult the University and College Union (UCU) over staff cuts.

The Tribunal ruled that the 143 university staff who lost their jobs had been unlawfully dismissed. The case cost the university £1.6 million in public money.

If the university had accepted UCU’s offer to settle at an earlier stage, £1.4 million could have been saved.

A report published in June 2019 by Employment judge Petra Sheils concluded that the unlawful dismissals arose from serious failings in university governance.

The report reinforced the tribunal’s finding that university management had actively misled UCU.

Although completed in April 2019, the report was not published by the university for a full three months, and only direct public pressure from UCU who had to lobby UU Council to ensure publication. The report can be read in full here.

In compliance with the report’s findings, UU Vice Chancellor Paddy Nixon apologized to the 143 people who were unlawfully dismissed.

An apology does not, however, repair the significant and lasting damage to industrial relations and to staff trust which this serious failure of governance has caused.

UCU at Ulster therefore calls on the university to back up its apologies with meaningful action by:

1.  initiating a disciplinary process which will hold senior managers accountable for their actions, and

2. presenting staff with a timetable for implementation of all recommendations of the report.