Sheffield Hallam staff to strike on Monday & Tuesday over withheld pay

Staff will be on picket lines outside the Owen building both strike days from 8:30am-11.30am.

The dispute is over Hallam management's refusal to implement the 2024/25 pay award of 2.7% from Thursday 1 August 2024, equivalent to around £100 per month for the average lecturer once pension costs are factored in. The university initially claimed it could not afford to implement the award, but belatedly did so this month, after UCU won its strike ballot. However, management still refuses to pay staff their seven months of lost earnings from August (2024), when the uplift should have come in.

Pay awards are negotiated nationally through collective agreements between employer body the Universities and Colleges Employers Association and UCU, alongside its sister unions. Hallam is the only university in Yorkshire and Humber that refused to implement the award.

Despite saying it couldn't afford to implement the pay award, Hallam management is pushing ahead with its £220m campus and satellite London campus, part of the £8bn Brent Cross Town development.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: 'Our members are striking because Sheffield Hallam is acting like a rogue employer. By refusing to fully implement the nationally agreed pay award, Hallam bosses are effectively stealing tens of thousands of pounds from their workforce.

'We refuse to accept that Hallam can invest hundreds of millions of pounds in shiny new buildings yet can't afford to meet the nationally agreed pay award, as every other university in Yorkshire was able to. Management needs to think again, or it is laying the groundwork for further disruption.'