Jobs at risk in college merger shake-up
UNION leaders have expressed anger at job loss plans at the former Stockport College, less than a year after it was merged with Trafford College.
The University and College Union (UCU) claimed 50 roles are to be axed at Stockport and Trafford College, with staff at all three sites in Stockport, Altrincham and Stretford, facing redundancy. Around half of the jobs were said to be teaching positions.
The Trafford College Group said approximately 27 full-time equivalent posts would be cut.
The UCU, which represents teachers at the college, said it was surprised to see 26 teaching jobs at risk in areas such as English, maths, gas and plumbing, and said its members would be meeting to discuss how to respond.
UCU regional official Martyn Moss said: “Less than a year on from a merger the college said would bring stability and allow it to better serve students, businesses and the local community it is announcing plans to scrap jobs.
“There is no rationale for axing jobs in areas like English, maths, gas and plumbing and the move appears to be directly at odds with what the students, businesses and the local community actually need. UCU will resist any compulsory redundancies amongst our members and we will be meeting in the coming days to discuss this news and how best to respond to it.”
Trafford College Group said they review their plans every year to make sure they can ‘provide high standards of teaching and learning’ to the community.
In a statement, they said: “As part of this year’s review we have seen that there are some areas that need to be addressed in terms of staffing levels and how we operate some of our services.
“In many cases this simply means that we will not be recruiting for new vacancies but we are also consulting with our trade unions on a proposal to, unfortunately, reduce approximately 27 full-time equivalent posts from the staff body, representing a little under 5 per cent of the college group. We hope that these changes together with a number of other initiatives will help us to continue to serve our students more effectively in the future.”