Questions over security costs at Halesowen College to disrupt strike

Members of UCU are on strike today as part of their bitter dispute with the college over the sacking of four maths lecturers. Staff were on picket lines from 7.30am and they tried to deliver a giant Valentine's Day card with over 12,000 signatures calling for the lecturers' reinstatement.

However, the college drafted in extra security to prevent the delivery of the card to the college's management. The union said the college must come clean over the extra cost of the security and why it chose to ignore the serious objections thousands of people have to the sackings.

The increasingly bitter dispute began with the dismissal of maths lecturer and UCU branch chair Dave Muritu on the day before the college closed for Christmas. In January three other maths lecturers (also active union members) were sacked and, like Dave Muritu, have since lost their appeals.

In recent days the union has asked questions about the timings of the sackings and the appointment of the lecturers' replacements. UCU discovered that replacement lecturers were appointed by the college in October - two months before the existing staff were sacked or had the opportunity to appeal against their dismissals. The new teachers started work on the same day that three of the existing teachers had disciplinary hearings.

UCU regional official, Nick Varney, said: 'We are astonished that the college refuse to acknowledge the complaints of thousands of people against the sackings, but that it also spent money drafting in extra security to try and silence these legitimate concerns.

'Shutting down protest is no way to deal the issue and the college must answer questions about how much it wasted on security to quash peaceful protest, as well the serious questions surrounding the way it sacked staff.

'Why did the college appoint new maths teachers in October - at least two months before the existing staff had been sacked or had a chance to appeal? The new staff started work on the day three of our members were dismissed.

'At all the appeals the employer did not have enough evidence against the individuals to dismiss them and used students' failure to achieve certain levels of attainment as a basis for sacking them. Not only is this unfair, but it threatens all lecturers' jobs at the college.'

UCU says all four lecturers had good records and it was the college's failings and selective use of information that allowed them to get rid of the staff.  There were no issues related to the lecturers' competence, none had any conduct issues cited in their dismissal and the college admitted there were no individual classroom issues.

Other complaints the union has made about the college's performance include: 

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

In the strike ballot, three-quarters (75%) of UCU members who voted backed the call for strike action.