Lecturers set to strike at Telford college

NUT members says they are striking again over "salary safeguarding following the restructure of curriculum managers posts in September 2014, and the college's failure to put in place a proper structure of responsibilities with remission below the new head of department posts".

A statement from the college said : "The college did not take the decision to reduce the number of managers lightly and would not want to reduce the salary of valued members of staff unless absolutely necessary. There were no compulsory redundancies from the restructure.

"On the matter of salary safeguarding, the College is happy to enter into discussions with the NUT and indeed other recognised unions in relation to future pay protection, but will not be altering arrangements for retrospective cases. This consultation ended in June 2014 and the College cannot and will not alter retrospective cases for a process that was concluded a year ago.

The college has previously safeguarded salaries for six months, and considers altering this to be unfair to those members of staff involved in previous restructures.

Claims made that the college has previously paid twelve months safeguarding have not been substantiated. As stated previously, the college will not alter its policy."

The statement added: "For those students whose lessons will be unfortunately be disrupted due to teacher involvement, the college has provided dedicated study sessions throughout the day, with specialist teaching staff on hand to support those students who would ordinarily be in a lesson.

"We feel confident that those students who will be affected will be well supported, with as little disruption to their day as possible."