Major rally and march to be held by workers striking at prestigious Scottish university over 700 job cuts

A march and rally will be held by staff striking at Dundee University over hundreds of planned job cuts.

Unite the Union have announced the rally will be held outside Dundee’s Caird Hall on Tuesday. The action was organised after an emergency motion on the university’s crisis was tabled at the STUC annual congress, which starts on Monday.

Dundee University's main library | Lisa Ferguson / National World

The latest action comes after staff carried out 15 days of strike action in February.

Unite said it was backing demands for the Scottish Government's external taskforce to spearhead measures to protect hundreds of staff and sustain the future of the university.

Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth said earlier this month that Dundee University needed to “think again” about the proposed 700 job losses.

Subscribe today for the best Scottish news via our daily newsletter

She said university officials were “working at pace” to bring the number of proposed job cuts down after the previous figure was “unpalatable” to ministers.

Education Secretary Jenny Gilruth | PA

A month ago the institution announced it was having to cut 635 full-time equivalent jobs to plug a £35 million financial deficit.

The rally outside Caird Hall at 12.30pm on Tuesday will involve trade unionists, community activists, students and workers.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham said: “Unite is totally committed to protecting the livelihoods of hundreds of our members at Dundee university. Unite will support our members every step of the way in defence of their jobs.”

Katrina Currie, Unite industrial officer, added: “Unite welcomes recent steps to remove an immediate redundancy threat to hundreds of workers. The threat to our members’ jobs, however, remains very real. We need every tool in defence of jobs and livelihoods which is why this industrial action mandate is vital.”

The Government has handed £22m in emergency funding to the university, after Dundee bosses admitted the institution would have run out of money by the end of June without financial relief.

Details of the march and rally were announced a day after the head of Edinburgh University confirmed “around 350” staff had taken voluntary redundancy.

The institution announced it would have to cut £140m from its budget to plug a black hole earlier this year, with job cuts likely.

Edinburgh University principal Professor Sir Peter Mathieson has said it would be a “tragedy” if a crisis in funding led to the closure of Dundee University and other education institutions.