After a trade union member was served with a notice of compulsory redundancy, with a leaving date of 18th November, UNISON has begun carrying out a consultative ballot on strike action at Salford City College. Teaching unions at the College are also exploring the prospect of industrial action.
This follows calls from the unions for a halt on a whole package of cuts the College wants to implement as part of its Business Transformation Plan, in order that a serious community consultation could be carried out. Instead, the College plans to hold three public meetings (7:30pm at the Pendleton Sixth Form Centre on 5th, Walkden Sixth Form Centre on 7th and Eccles Sixth Form Centre on 8th October), after its new course guide featuring many of the changes has already been sent out.
As part of up to 57 job cuts at the College, there are also proposals to reduce the number of counsellors, who support vulnerable students and staff, from four to just one. Discussions on this issue are ongoing.
Meanwhile, as the College seems determined to press ahead with its Transformation Plan, a new Vice Principal for Development and Innovation, Saf Arfan, has been employed on a salary of £73,876. Arfan is an old colleague of Principal John Spindler. They both worked at Hopwood Hall College in Rochdale, where Spindler was accused of (unsubstantiated) cronyism while redundancies were happening (see here).
The Salford Star understands that staff at Salford City College were told recently that negative press surrounding the cuts was affecting enrolments, and that staff should stop being negative... `Every seven enrolments we're down is another job lost'... However, the College seems to be firing that `negative press' by not listening to its own staff, imposing new burdens on students and taking on highly paid new staff while forcing others out.
The result of the UNISON consultative ballot on strike action will be known next week...
* For a full background on the cuts at Salford City College and reaction see previous Salford Star article – click here
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