Cambridge University Press confirms redundancies and restructures printing
- Release Date: 01/05/2009
- Country of Issue: United Kingdom
- Category: Corporate
Cambridge University Press has confirmed that 48 members of staff from their printing department are to be made redundant, and a further 25 redeployed to other parts of the business. The number of redundancies, though still high, is far lower than had originally been feared. It is expected that 72 jobs will initially be retained in printing.
Cambridge Printing Services Limited (CPSL), along with many other printers in the UK, has been going through an extremely difficult time in the past few years, and has been running at a loss for some time. If the printing business had continued in its current form, it was anticipated that it would have lost up to £2 million a year from 2009 onwards.
It was announced in January of this year that as many as 133 redundancies could be required in CPSL. A statutory 90-day consultation with affected staff and their representatives has been under way since then.
As a result of this consultation, there have been some important changes to the future plan for the printing business. The amount of printing for internal departments at the Press has been increased, so that the main focus of the business will be on printing academic and professional books, research journals and English language teaching publications. Printing will also continue to be done for selected external customers and the University of Cambridge.
Voluntary redundancies will be encouraged wherever possible, and enhanced redundancy terms have been agreed for all staff who are affected, including a £3,000 grant for each affected member of staff to help them to acquire new skills to enable them to find work in another sector.
A selection process will now begin to identify those who will be made redundant, using criteria that have been agreed with staff and their representatives.
Eight redundancies have also been announced in the Press’s UK Education publishing business, and two in the Cambridge–Hitachi joint venture. Up to 30 job losses were originally planned in these areas, but many staff have been successfully redeployed to other parts of the Press’s business.
Despite losses in the printing part of its business, the Press is performing well overall. Due to a high quality publishing list and investment in emerging publishing and educational technologies, it has seen its financial performance improving steadily over the past four years.
Ann Field, Unite’s national officer for the print sector said: “The prospect of losing printing at Cambridge University Press after 425 years of continuous activity was horrific for the workforce, for the community, and for the many generations of Cambridge workers and their families who have supported the University and its Press.
“Although the loss of any jobs will be painful for people affected, Unite members, chapel reps and union officials are glad that more jobs have been saved and that printing will continue, including an element of colour work.”
Cambridge University Press Chief Executive Stephen Bourne commented: “Whilst we are all pleased that the number of redundancies is far lower than we originally anticipated, it is still a difficult time for all involved and we will be doing all we can to support our colleagues during this process.
“I would like to thank our staff, their union representatives working in the printing business and the union Unite for working with us so constructively. Their input has been crucial to the process and, as a result of our working together, we have minimised the number of people that will be looking for new jobs during these times of economic uncertainty. We believe we now have a workable solution that will safeguard the future of our business, while recognising the needs of our staff. We are committed to ensuring that the new plan for our printing unit is a success, and we aim to improve on the very good results we have seen in our publishing business in recent years.”
ENDS
Notes for Editors:
About Cambridge University Press
Cambridge University Press is the publishing business of the University of Cambridge, one of the world’s leading research institutions. It is the oldest publisher and printer in the world, having been operating continuously since 1584.
Throughout its history, the Press has maintained a reputation for innovation and enterprise, through publishing the latest research, and through supporting the latest methodologies for teaching and learning. Its purpose is to advance learning, knowledge and research worldwide. It publishes over 230 journals and 2,500 books annually for distribution in nearly every country in the world. The main business of the Press is publishing.
About Unite
Unite is Britains biggest union with two million members in every type of workplace. Unite was formed by a merger between two of Britains leading unions, the T&G and Amicus. It was created to meet the great challenges facing working people in the 21st century and is a democratic and campaigning union which fights back for employees in the workplace, is taking trade unionism out to the millions of unorganised workers, is a union that stands up for equality for all and advances its members interests politically. Unite is also active on a global scale building ever stronger links with trade unions around the world to confront the challenges of the globalised economy.
If you would like more information, contact the Press Office:
- Telephone: +44 (0)1223 325544
- Fax: +44 (0)1223 325062
- Email: press@cambridge.org
- Post: The Press Office, University Printing House, Shaftesbury Road, Cambridge, CB2 8BS, United Kingdom