UNISON has claimed victory over planned redundancies after four days of strike action at the University of Bradford

It claims the university has climbed down on planned redundancies of non-academic staff following the industrial action.

Earlier this year the Telegraph & Argus revealed 200 members of staff were set to be made redundant by the university as part of streamlining and cost-cutting measures.

But following the strikes, when members were joined on the picket line by local Labour MPs Judith Cummins and Imran Hussain, UNISON said only eight of its members are now at risk of losing their jobs.

UNISON also claimed the University was planning 250 redundancies. In July it was revealed 165 full-time jobs were to go, and 35 redundancies had already been agreed.

Leonie Sharp, from UNISON, said: “Because the University of Bradford’s senior leadership has failed to properly engage with staff and unions through this redundancy process, we can only assume the reason they have changed their minds over redundancies is UNISON’s industrial action, which culminated in a four-day strike.”

“It was reported back to us throughout our dispute that the only reason the University of Bradford’s senior leadership did not engage with the unions and come back around the negotiating table was to save face.

"This despite Judith Cummins MP and Imran Hussain MP writing to the university, urging them to enter talks to avoid a strike.

"We made ourselves available at all time to negotiate. Our only objective through this process was to save jobs and not about point scoring.

"But as no clear explanation has been given to staff or unions, we can only presume that is was our strike action that saved jobs.”

UNISON added it has also helped around a dozen members take voluntary redundancy.

A spokesperson for the University of Bradford said: “We have set a clear plan for the University’s development over the next two to three years.

"We are on track to deliver this plan with strong student recruitment this year and applications for 2019/20 running higher than last year. This shows that our revised strategy and development plan are all working well.

"The University has from the very start of the change plan emphasised that our twin priorities have been to protect as many jobs as we can, and to safeguard student experience.

"We have delivered the first phase of our reshaping with no compulsory redundancies. It is unlikely that there will be compulsory redundancies as a result of the current proposals. As we have not changed our course of direction but in fact maintained a transparent policy and approach throughout, we have consistently said we did not envisage large-scale compulsory redundancies.

"However, until we go through the processes we cannot guarantee this. As we have said on previous occasions, the University’s senior management has continued to consult with the unions during this process, and remains committed to fully engaging with them as we complete our proposals.”