COLLEGE lecturers may take action after four colleagues were asked to reapply for three jobs - leaving one of them redundant.

Peter Jones, union branch secretary at Burnley College, said he was calling a meeting of all members of the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education next week to ask what action they wanted to take.

He said: "This will be the first compulsory redundancy at Burnley College since we became incorporated.

"My telephone has been red-hot since the members of the art and design section were told the news.

"There are six people in the department including the head and one member of staff who was only employed last year, but they have not been asked to reapply for their jobs.

"The college has said the redundancy is necessary because the department has not had any growth over the last three years, which I am looking into. "But if that was the case, why take on another member of staff last year? Surely they must have seen this situation coming."

Mr Jones is a member of the Industrial Tribunal panel at Leeds and believes whoever is made redundant has grounds for pursuing a claim for unfair dismissal, which would be heard at Manchester.

He said: "They have not used the proper selection criteria in putting this forward to the members of staff.

"They must have criteria which includes all members of staff in the school of art and design.

He said tutors' workloads had increased since non-negotiated contracts were imposed after the college became independent.

He did not know if the members would be asking for a ballot on strike action over the redundancy announcement.

Burnley College principal John Smith was unavailable for comment.

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