UNION chiefs have expressed fears of possible compulsory redundancies at The University of Wales, Trinity St David as the result of a cost-cutting exercise.

UNISON say teaching and support members of staff have been asked to consider voluntary redundancy.

Although a target number of applicants has not been publicised, the union claims the university hopes to make savings of around 10 per cent across its expenditure.

“It would be reasonable to assume compulsory redundancies are inevitable if the university does not receive enough volunteers,” said a source.

UNISON’s Hugh McDyer maintained there were big changes ahead at the university and a likely merger of sites.

“We’ll work with them to identify savings if they need to be made, but that should not be at the cost of front-line workers,” he said. “An obvious start would be to stop recruiting highly-paid management staff.

“Over the last few years more senior managers have been recruited on lucrative contracts leaving fewer staff to teach and support students."

A spokesperson for the university said: “As part of its normal ongoing business practice the university regularly reviews its staffing costs in line with sector benchmarks.

“The university’s current staffing costs are above sector benchmark comparisons and therefore a review of staffing levels across all academic and professional units is being undertaken. To this end, the university has launched a voluntary redundancy scheme with the aim of reducing staffing costs as a percentage of turnover, and has met recently with recognised trades unions to appraise them of the situation. The process is likely to continue over the next few weeks.”

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