UNIVERSITY bosses have been condemned for threatening to withhold staff pay following 16 days of strikes over major job cut plans. 

University and College Union (UCU) members walked out in November and December over proposals to slash professional service staff and impose further cuts in academic areas at the University of Sheffield.

This week they were warned their wages would be withheld between January 19 and February 6 and any work undertaken regarded as voluntary if they do not reschedule any teaching lost during the strike, the union said.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said that there “is no justification for the threatened job cuts.

“For management to now threaten staff with withholding pay, on top of the pay lost for lawful industrial action, is nothing short of scandalous.“

More than 900 students called for Sheffield’s vice-chancellor Koen Lamberts’s resignation in an open letter this week. The university was contacted for comment.