NASUWT Teachers and Lecturers strike to protect jobs at Chesterfield College

Members of the NASUWT, the largest teachers’ trade union, will be taking strike action on  Thursday June 20^th at Chesterfield College. NASUWT completely rejects the claims made by the Chesterfield College management that the reduction in staffing is inevitable and has to be done.

Keith Muncey, National Executive Member for Derbyshire of the NASUWT said:

“The college refers to these redundancies as an:  “…unfortunate result of a process to match staffing needs to teaching demands.”

This is far more than “unfortunate” for the staff concerned who have been treated appallingly. There has been no concern for their welfare or for the fact that they have families to care for and mortgages to pay.

The college’s idea of Human Resource Management seems to be sack them if you don’t need them and, if you do need them, appoint new ones on zero hours contracts and then you’ll only have to pay for the time that they work.”

It is true that there has been a reduction in the numbers of students attending the college and that the demands for college courses has changed in the light of a greater emphasis on the training required for apprenticeships.

NASUWT asserts that this should not inevitably lead to the crude tactics being deployed by the college management who have again used the expedient of using a redundancy tactic for the third year in a row.

The college has known about the changing demographic of the population of the Chesterfield College catchment area for many years and has persistently failed to adapt its staffing strategy to meet this change.

Keith Muncey said:

“NASUWT is dismayed by the fact that the college has failed to invest in its established staff to train and prepare them for the changing needs of the college and has continued to recruit externally where there is staffing expertise available on the existing college staff.

It appears to have completely rejected the need to train and invest in its staff to be able to meet the changing needs of Further Education in Chesterfield.”

NASUWT members will continue their fight to protect their jobs from this vicious attack by Chesterfield College management.