UCU hit with more strikes after staff claim ‘victimisation’

The UK’s biggest university union is set to be disrupted again by internal strikes, with some staff walking out over claims one of their number has been “victimised”.

In the latest development in a bitter long-running dispute between the leadership of the University and College Union (UCU) and staff members who belong to the Unite the Union, two weeks of strikes will be held in February.

Unite UCU claims that its health and safety officer, Marie Monaghan, was “targeted” after raising safety complaints about stress and workloads at UCU, including to the Health and Safety Executive (HSE). 

She is now facing disciplinary action, said Unite, and the union is calling for “the immediate reversal of the unjustified and unlawful treatment” towards her.

UCU staff have long been locked in dispute with the union’s leadership, alleging a toxic workplace culture.

The HSE wrote to UCU in 2023 saying it had identified “material breaches” of health and safety law over workplace stress, and said UCU did not have sufficient risk assessment in place, following Unite’s complaints.

Unite argued that workplace stress absences have “rocketed” since then, with the number of stress-related absences standing at 350 in 2023 but rising to over 900 in 2024. It said more than 600 were recorded during the first nine months of 2025.

A UCU Unite spokesperson said it “does not tolerate” the victimisation of any Unite member, and “the threat to their job and livelihood must end immediately”.

They said the dispute would not end until the leadership agrees to sit down with Unite “to rectify the legitimate and pressing issues facing its staff”, adding that this was “something they are currently refusing to do”.

Unite claims several of its members have been targeted after speaking up about workplace concerns, noting its branch chair and vice-chair both left UCU in December.

UCU staff have taken six weeks of strike action in the past 12 months over their concerns and are planning to ballot members again on whether to extend its industrial action mandate.

UCU was approached for comment.

juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com