Peace deal halts strike by university lecturers

The University and College Union had voted for strike action in protest at job cuts in the university's faculty of biological sciences and the institution's refusal to rule out compulsory redundancies.

Both Leeds University and UCU announced yesterday than an agreement had been reached to bring the dispute to a close following talks which had been brokered through ACAS. It is the second time the UCU has cancelled planned strike action in the past four weeks.

The general secretary of the UCU, Sally Hunt, said: "We are really pleased with the progress made in the past few meetings. Thursday's industrial action is off and the dispute is over."

A Leeds University spokesman said: "The main features of the agreement include a new sector-leading process for managing organisational change; this reinforces collegiality and the engagement of staff and represents a ground-breaking package enshrining the principles of openness, fairness, transparency and good governance in detailed new policies and procedures to promote job security, avoid redundancy and manage change."

Leeds University is carrying out a major cost cutting programme aimed at saving 35m by 2011 to deal with the expected cuts in higher education funding.

The university estimates up to 400 posts could be lost through this exercise but said compulsory redundancies would only be considered as a last resort.

The UCU has claimed that up to 700 jobs could be lost in the shake-up.