United support for sacked SOAS librarians

3 October 2005

Over 400 staff and students gathered at 1pm last Friday to show their support for two librarians sacked from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS).

Members of AUT and UNISON stood alongside students at the entrance of SOAS in London to express their outrage at the unjustified sacking of the librarians. Protests continued today as a delegation of AUT members accompanied the sacked librarians to question Senior Managers about their decision. Senior Managers refused to meet with the librarians and their AUT colleagues.

Senior staff at SOAS have successfully lobbied for an extraordinary meeting of the SOAS governing body in order to reconsider the decision to sack the librarians. This meeting will take place in the next week.

The sacked librarians are experts who manage the special collections at the heart of the SOAS library. Despite their long service, SOAS managers sacked these staff with no proper consultation, trying to push through cuts during the summer to avoid protests. SOAS did not even allow the librarians to work out their notice; they were ejected from the university at 5pm on Friday 30 September.

The sackings have caused outrage in the academic community. Eighteen senior lecturers at SOAS have resigned from their non-contractual positions at the university in protest, while academics across the world have pointed out that the job cuts will undermine the university’s international reputation.

Graham Dyer, AUT President at SOAS, said: 'This is academic vandalism by the management of SOAS. These demonstrations show how angry our members are at the attempts to downgrade the library and dispose of long serving staff members. We call on SOAS management to reverse their decision and to reinstate our colleagues.'

Sue Small, one of the sacked librarians, said: 'At a time when the world is waking up to the importance of China and Asia in business and academia, SOAS is cutting the library resources in this area. I have worked for SOAS for over 25 years, and I am not even being allowed to work out my notice.'

Peter Mitchell, AUT Assistant General Secretary for London, added: 'I am disgusted with the way that SOAS has treated these long serving librarians. SOAS management should throw away such staff at their peril.

'There has not been proper consultation with the staff concerned, and AUT will support our members in challenging this decision. Members of the SOAS governing body should use the extraordinary meeting as an opportunity to reinstate the library staff before further damage is done to the university’s international academic reputation.'