Staff vote for strike action at Chesterfield College

Nine in ten (88%) of those who voted voted for strike action. A date for the action will be announced next week.

The union's action is in response to the college's plans to make 39 teaching staff redundant by the end of the academic year.

The institution also intends to ignore nationally agreed pay scales and cap lecturers' annual salaries £5,000 lower than the national average*.

In addition, the college is threatening to reduce salaries for hourly-paid staff by 20% and to move learning support tutors on to inferior contracts.

UCU regional official, Anne O'Sullivan, said: 'It is a real shame that things have to come to this, but we are not prepared sit back while jobs and pay are attacked in this way. These plans are little more than an attempt to deliver teaching on the cheap and are bad for staff and students.'

Notes

* According to the Annual Survey of Hourly Earnings (ASHE) from the Office for National Statistics the full-time mean average annual pay (2011) for a further education teaching professional was £35,216. Chesterfield College intends to cap annual salaries at £30,462.