22 March 2006

Lecturers to hold ‘funeral service’ for employment contract

Lecturers dressed in black will stage a mock funeral service for their contract of employment next Monday. The mourning staff at Oaklands College will say their final farewells to the contract outside the St Albans City Campus.

Members of NATFHE - The University & College Lecturers’ Union are furious about their management’s attempts to impose an inferior contract which they believe will damage students’ education.

Oaklands lecturers have been told that if they do not sign the new contract by Monday April 3, they will receive dismissal letters in the post.

The proposed contract would remove the existing 24-hour weekly maximum limit on teaching hours meaning lecturers could end up teaching up to 37 hours, leaving significantly less time to prepare and mark student’s work. At present, for each hour spent face-to-face with students, half an hour is spent on lesson preparation, marking and administration.

The college also wants to introduce Performance Related Pay (PRP) which means lecturers’ salaries would be dependent on them meeting a list of criteria drawn up by the college. NATFHE is opposed to PRP and highlights that it was not part of a landmark national pay deal agreed between the union and the Association of Colleges. That deal aimed to give further education lecturers across the country equitable rates of pay, and reduce the 10% gap between them and schoolteachers.

Nearly three-quarters of NATFHE members at Oaklands College who took part in a ballot on strike action, voted ‘yes’. Monday’s lunchtime demonstration is the first step of a rolling programme of action.

David Brooke, Oaklands College NATFHE branch secretary, said:

‘The college management says that this new contract will improve education at Oaklands. How can that be the case when it will leave lecturers far less time for the foundations of good teaching – preparation and marking?

‘This isn’t about money for lecturers; it is about providing a decent standard of education at this college.’

Notes to Editors

• The ‘funeral service’ will be held at 12.15pm on Monday, March 27, at:

Oaklands College
St Albans City Campus
St Peter’s Road
St Albans
Hertfordshire
AL1 3RX

• Lecturers will then attend a rally between 12.30-1pm at:

The Old Court House
The Old Town Hall
St Peters Street
St Albans
Hertfordshire

Speakers will include Barry Lovejoy, NATFHE’s head of colleges

• 70% of NATFHE members at Oaklands College who took part in a ballot voted ‘yes’ to industrial action.

• 89% of NATFHE members at Oaklands College who took part in a ballot voted ‘yes’ to action short of a strike

Contacts
Vicky Wilks, NATFHE press officer: 020-7520 3207/07970-383995
David Brook, NATFHE branch secretary at Oaklands College: 07854-366620

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