HUNDREDS of workers at the University of Dundee have backed strike action as they battle swingeing job cuts at the crisis-struck institution.

The university was plunged into chaos last year when the senior management team informed staff of a £30 million deficit before resigning en masse.

Since then, the true extent of the deficit is understood to stand at £35m, and interim principal Shane O'Neill has announced plans to axe more than 700 jobs — amounting to 20 per cent of the workforce — refusing to rule out compulsory redundancies. 

Unite balloted its technician and student support worker members for strike action, winning resounding support as they call for the Scottish government’s external taskforce to not only secure jobs and the university’s future.

Calling on trade unionists heading to next week’s STUC in the city to join a solidarity rally on Tuesday at 12.30pm outside its Caird Hall venue, Unite industrial officer Katrina Currie said the jobs threat “remains very real.”

“We need every tool in defence of jobs and livelihoods which is why this industrial action mandate is vital,” she said.

A spokesperson for Dundee University said they will “continue to engage with all of our campus unions as we work towards a financial recovery.”

But calling for a “real recovery plan,” socialist MSP Mercedes Villalba told the Star: “The University of Dundee is its people: students, staff and the wider city. Together, we have the knowledge, skills and experience to continue making the university a world-class institution.

“Yet those at the top continue to act out bad practice. As an employer it is coming dangerously close to breaching its legal duty to consult with trade unions on redundancies, and workers and students are being forced to rely on the rumour mill for insights into their future.”

At Edinburgh University meanwhile, the UCU continue to ballot members for strike action amid plans to slash £140m at one of Britain’s richest seats of learning.

Despite 350 workers choosing voluntary redundancy, saving £18m a year according to Principal Professor Sir Peter Mathieson, the institution continues to refuse to rule out compulsory redundancies.

Branding the situation “ludicrous,” UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “University leaders need to reconsider these brutal cuts and focus on their responsibility to protect workers’ jobs and the university’s reputation and future.”

Edinburgh University was contacted for comment.