FE staff fight cuts

Submitted by Matthew on 29 June, 2011 - 1:14

Further education (FE) lecturers are bracing themselves for a round of cuts taking effect in the autumn. Some colleges are already in dispute with management.

Further cuts will be inevitable when the change in eligibility to free courses for those on benefits comes through. At the moment there is free provision for individuals on benefits. Next year this will only apply to those on job-seekers’ allowance and who are actively seeking work. Those on inactive benefits (Income Support) will no longer be eligible for free provision and will have to pay fees which are 50% of their programme.

This affects many students who want to study on English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) courses.

In the meantime disputes are ongoing at:

• Westminster Kingsway — in dispute over redundancies and have balloted for industrial action. 88% voted for strike action and 95% for action short of strike.

•Croydon College over redundancies. Messages of support to Margot at hillm@croydon.ac.uk

• Ealing and Hammersmith over redundancies. Messages of support to Tim at timothy.dalrymple@wlc.ac.uk

• Conel, although they have won on compulsory redundancies, are still in dispute over provision. Messages of support to Jenny at
jsutton@staff.conel.ac.uk

•City of Westminster over redundancies and victimisation. Messages of support to Phil at phil.flanders@cwc.ac.uk

• Barnsley College are set to escalate their action to four days next week over redundancies and union busting. Send messages of support to Dave at d.gibson@barnsley.ac.uk

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