Manchester College staff to be balloted over strike action
4 May 2010
Members of UCU at the country's biggest college are to be balloted for strike action in a row over worsening terms and conditions. The college wants to implement new contracts that will see some staff lose five weeks' holiday and others forced to do 260 hours' teaching more a year than school teachers.
The union said today it has been left with no option but to ballot for industrial action after the college refused to budge on its proposals to introduce the new contracts and reduce sick pay. The union said the punitive changes will impact massively on students as well as staff. The extra hours and loss of holidays must be factored alongside a huge rise in preparation time and extra marking. The news comes as it was revealed that the top earners in the college management have enjoyed bumper pay rises.
UCU said that today's breakdown of talks is the latest blunder in a long line of shoddy efforts by Manchester College management. In January UCU accused Manchester College of throwing the prison education sector into havoc when the college announced plans for 250 job losses from its offender learning teams and a further 50 redundancies from other departments. At the end of last year the college singled out its prison education staff for a pay freeze.
In July 2009 Manchester College teaching staff at the Oakhill Secure Training centre near Milton Keynes walked out over allegations of bullying and harassment. The following month UCU members walked out at the college's main Manchester campus in protest at the sacking of 15 staff members. UCU was furious that the college targeted union activists in a round of redundancies described by the union as punishing and unnecessary.
UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'Staff at Manchester College do not want to be taking strike action, however the intransigence of the college on this issue has forced our hand. Teachers of adults are not second class teachers, they do the same job as teachers in our schools.
'College students are not second class students and they deserve the same high standards from their teachers. College students' education can only suffer under these proposals. In these tough times, when our communities need access to education and retraining the most, we need to be investing in education, not making punitive cuts.'
UCU said that today's breakdown of talks is the latest blunder in a long line of shoddy efforts by Manchester College management. In January UCU accused Manchester College of throwing the prison education sector into havoc when the college announced plans for 250 job losses from its offender learning teams and a further 50 redundancies from other departments. At the end of last year the college singled out its prison education staff for a pay freeze.
In July 2009 Manchester College teaching staff at the Oakhill Secure Training centre near Milton Keynes walked out over allegations of bullying and harassment. The following month UCU members walked out at the college's main Manchester campus in protest at the sacking of 15 staff members. UCU was furious that the college targeted union activists in a round of redundancies described by the union as punishing and unnecessary.
UCU general secretary, Sally Hunt, said: 'Staff at Manchester College do not want to be taking strike action, however the intransigence of the college on this issue has forced our hand. Teachers of adults are not second class teachers, they do the same job as teachers in our schools.
'College students are not second class students and they deserve the same high standards from their teachers. College students' education can only suffer under these proposals. In these tough times, when our communities need access to education and retraining the most, we need to be investing in education, not making punitive cuts.'
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