'Yes' vote for strike action at Halesowen College

The union is expected to announce strike dates later this week if no breakthrough can be found in the increasingly bitter dispute between the college and UCU over the sacking of four maths lecturers.

Three-quarters (75%) of people who voted, backed a call for strike action, and around nine in ten (89%) backed action short of a strike which could include staff working only to their contracted hours or refusing to cover classes.

UCU says all four teachers had good records and it was the college's failings and selective use of information that allowed them to get rid of the staff.

The first to be dismissed, Dave Muritu, lost an appeal hearing last week. An online petition calling for Mr Muritu to be reinstated has received over 12.000 signatures.

There has been a march through Halesowen to protest at the sackings and an open day was disrupted to highlight the lecturers' plight. The union says the students' failures may be a result of a litany of poor management practices by the college, which include:

• refusal to pay for specialist cover (in spite of a huge surplus) for long-term sickness
• lecturers expected to teach two different classes in two different rooms at the same time
• groups being pushed together even though they are supposed to be studying different material
• non-specialist staff regularly covering maths sessions
• failure to provide teaching for students in the run-up to exams.

There were no issues related to lecturers' competence, none had conduct issues cited in their dismissal and the college admitted there were no individual classroom capability issues. The staff were all dismissed because their students failed to reach expected attainment levels.

UCU regional official, Nick Varney, said: 'Nobody wants to see strike action or any further disruption at Halesowen, but staff there feel they have been left with no choice. We will be deciding in the next couple of days just what action to take and when.

'We would like to think the college would be prepared to talk to us about finding a better way to resolve this sorry situation, but we can't say we're hopeful of that happening.

'These members of staff were unfairly sacked and it is quite right and proper that their colleagues should defend them and let the college know it cannot continue to act like this.'