79 staff wait to discover if their jobs are safe as West Cheshire College sends out redundancy letters
8 May 2014
Seventy-nine members of staff at West Cheshire College will discover shortly if their job is safe or not as the college today sends letters to the affected workers warning them their jobs are at risk as part of a shake-up.
The axe is due fall at both the Ellesmere Port and Chester Campuses, with a quarter (30) of the 120 staff at the Chester Campus at risk and 49 more at Ellesmere Port.
The college says it doesn't expect to find alternative work for all the staff that it will let go and has asked for people to come forward for voluntary redundancy. The UCU, which represents academic members of staff at the college, said it would fight any efforts to make staff compulsorily redundant.
The college is blaming government cuts for the job cull, but UCU said the college had to avoid knee-jerk cuts to staff and services and encouraged the college to meet to discuss alternatives.
UCU regional official, Martyn Moss, said: 'The further education sector is facing a difficult time due to cuts in funding. However, UCU does not accept its members should bear the brunt of these cuts by losing their jobs.
'Government cuts to education are an outrageous affront to people who need access to it in these tough times. We want to work with West Cheshire College to ensure that students in the area still have the opportunities they need to try and get on - the last thing they need is job cuts and course closures at their local college.'
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