Lecturers to strike again at Epping Forest College in 'victimisation' row

Staff will be on picket lines from 12 noon outside the main Borders Lane entrance to the college (see notes for details). It will be the second time this month that staff have taken industrial action following a previous strike on 13 February. Lessons will be cancelled in Teacher Training, Learning Difficulties and Disabilities, Accounts and Business, Sociology, Philosophy, English Literature, Languages, Media, Art and Design, Drama, and Construction.

Hugh Hobson, who taught construction at the college and was the college's UCU branch chair, was summarily dismissed a week before Christmas by then principal Peter Sadler. Following the dismissal, staff and parents organised a petition calling for Hobson to be re-instated and, on 8 January, UCU members voted overwhelmingly in favour of taking industrial action.

UCU head of further education, Barry Lovejoy, said: 'Hugh is a popular teacher and was treated very harshly by the college. Despite UCU's best efforts to work with the college to resolve this situation the college still refuses to offer a fair and acceptable solution".

'A recent OFSTED inspection highlighted significant challenges for the college to address. Now more than ever the students of Epping Forest College need management and staff working together. The college has to put right this wrong before we can all move forward and put the regrettable events of last year behind us.'

Directions to college