Doncaster College strike threat over job cuts

Staff have been told that 160 posts will go, and some lecturers will be replaced by lower skilled assessors, as the college looks to re-organise.
 
In total more than 300 jobs are at risk, with 19 management posts, 200 academic roles and 88 support positions under threat. This is the fifth time in five years that the college management has embarked on a restructure and lecturers have been warned to expect increased class sizes as a consequence of the job losses.
 
Doncaster College has already been disrupted by strike action this year when members of UCU walked out over a pay row. Doncaster is one of eight 'IOU' colleges being targeted by the union for failing to honour a pay deal agreed over four years ago (see IOU campaign in notes). Staff at the college took a day's strike action on Thursday 5 February.
 
UCU regional official for Doncaster, Russ Escrit, said: 'We will strongly resist any threat of compulsory redundancies and we urge the college to think again or face the likelihood of even more industrial action. The college simply cannot justify making hundreds of people redundant; it would be a disaster for students and the local area. It is unacceptable to replace dedicated teaching professionals with assessors. This is nothing more than teaching on the cheap and makes a mockery of Doncaster's stated aim to become a university.'
 
UCU head of further education Barry Lovejoy said: 'Doncaster College stands to gain absolutely nothing by pushing ahead with these plans. If it wants to fulfil its ambition of becoming a university it needs to be able to offer students top quality teaching and a whole range of courses. Axing hundreds of people would make this impossible.'