ANGRY teachers at Holy Cross College will be out on strike next Tuesday,October 22, after bosses issued redundancy notices to two of their colleagues.

Strike action was overwhelmingly backed in a ballot with 98 per cent of the members of the two main teaching unions, the NASUWT and NUT, supporting the call. Tuesday's one-day stoppage at the Manchester Road, Bury college comes after two members of staff were given redundancy notices with effect from December 31. The two have 45 years' teaching experience between them, 20 at Holy Cross.

In a statement the unions said: "Staff have long been dissatisfied with the management style adopted at the college, and this has come to a head."

The union say that the redundancies are not necessary - and will not even produce significant savings.

One of the two teachers issued with a notice is a member of the NASUWT.

Mr Neil Fairclough, Bury branch secretary of the union, said: "By the time you take into account notice and redundancy payments, the actual saving amounts to a few hundred pounds this year."

And both unions say the cuts will mean bigger class sizes, and reduce the college's ability to meet the needs of students.

Around 50 of the 67 teachers at the college will be out on strike on Tuesday.

Mr Mike O'Hare, principal at the college, said in a statement that the decision to make redundancies had been made "with great regret."

"Holy Cross, along with all other colleges, is having to plan and manage in increasingly difficult financial circumstances." he said.

"In a recent national survey of sixth form colleges 70 per cent said they plan to reduce staff."

Colleges are funded by the Further Education Funding Council, a quango set up when sixth forms were taken out of local authority control in 1993.

The cuts come at the college despite success at attracting new students - a recent inspection report pointed out that the college had nearly twice as many students as it had room for.

Other than his statement Mr O'Hare was unavailable for comment, and no-one at the college could say how the strike would affect lessons.

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