Teaching union backs Napier redundancy plan

A TEACHING union has backed a voluntary redundancy scheme at Edinburgh Napier University.

The institution announced on Friday that 89 members of staff agreed to take voluntary redundancy as part of a money-saving shake-up.

Forty-five teaching staff have successfully applied to the scheme, while 44 "professional service staff" – which includes employees from student affairs, human resources and IT – are also leaving the university.

A total of 116 applications for voluntary severance were made in total by employees, after the university opened the offer to all staff last summer.

David Belsey, national officer for further and higher education for teaching union the EIS, said: "The EIS supports the use of voluntary severance at Edinburgh Napier University and the way in which the university, on the whole, conducted it.

"The EIS will be working to ensure that remaining staff will not be adversely affected and therefore will be monitoring their workloads."