LECTURERS at the University of Liverpool celebrated a major victory today after winning a battle against compulsory redundancies.

More than 1,000 members of the University and College Union (UCU) joined the longest period of industrial action in their union’s history, which included refusing to mark exam papers and urging a worldwide academic boycott of the university.

With a further five days of strike action due to start today, an 11th-hour agreement has now been reached with university authorities that the jobs in question will not now be made compulsorily redundant.

The action began in January when management announced plans to axe the jobs of 47 teachers and researchers in the faculty of health and life sciences.

Workers at the faculty carry out world-leading research to address unmet health needs, including cancer prevention, ageing and chronic disease and health inequalities, according to the university’s website.

UCU members voted overwhelmingly — 84 per cent — for action to resist the redundancies and were supported by the university’s Guild of Students, which called on the university authorities to halt the cuts and end the disruption to their education, and since January the lecturers have staged 24 days of strikes.

The number of redundancies was whittled down to two, but the lecturers voted to continue the campaign to defend the jobs, and were supported at a mass rally at which former Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn spoke.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “This outcome is down to the efforts of our members and the amazing displays of solidarity from the hundreds that have taken part in the dispute, as well as the support they received from the students and the people of Liverpool that backed staff.

“While any job losses are unwelcome, I hope this outcome will reverberate through the whole sector and show that staff, students and the wider community are prepared to stand together to resist staffing cuts. 

“We now hope industrial relations at the university can get back onto a constructive footing.”

A statement from the University of Liverpool said: “The university’s position from the outset has been to make every possible reasonable effort to avoid a scenario where compulsory redundancies are necessary.”