Wolverhampton accidentally reveals staff at risk of redundancy

The University of Wolverhampton has mistakenly revealed the identities of staff at risk of redundancy by including them in a group email.

The post-92 university is currently in the middle of a restructure and redundancy process, having last year announced plans to close its Telford campus, as well as proposing to close numerous English courses earlier this year.

A University and College Union spokesperson said that on Monday staff involved in the redundancy process, including those in the at-risk pool selections, as well as some faculty management, received an email updating them about that process, in which the institution mistakenly copied all their email addresses into the CC field, rather than hiding them in the BCC field.

Those affected have taken to social media complaining of the incident, raising concerns over data privacy. Others have suggested that the university should be reported to the Information Commissioner’s Office.

One staff member, who wished to remain anonymous, told Times Higher Education: “It’s emotionally grim to put names to your competitors [for job retention], most of whom are friends. It’s also a shock to see how incompetent managers are – we all have to do mandatory annual training in this stuff, and yet they still do things like this.”

They added that it is the “total lack of care or interest in procedure that hurts. Throughout the [redundancy] process, agreements have been broken, dates missed and mistakes made. It feels like contempt, and this is just the latest example.”

The UCU branch said that it is considering its “next steps”, and said that staff were anxious following the incident. The spokesperson added that the mix up came against a backdrop of “chaotic organisational change this summer, with the university running four [restructure] processes simultaneously, involving teaching and student support staff reductions and faculty re-organisation”. 

They said the restructure has faced “severe delays due to management absence”, as well as the need to communicate with staff who are on leave. 

“As you can imagine, the delays and lack of meaningful communication have caused a great deal of stress and anxiety for affected staff,” they said.

The university has been approached for comment. 

 juliette.rowsell@timeshighereducation.com