Almost 40 staff members at South West College (SWC) could be made redundant within the next year, it can be revealed.

In a letter obtained by The Impartial Reporter, Chief Executive Celine McCartan (pictured right) has confirmed that South West College is proposing to make a total of 37 redundancies across all of its campuses which includes the Erne Campus in Enniskillen.

These proposed redundancies come amid an ongoing fallout regarding pay between South West College management and staff, which has resulted in recent industrial action.

In response to this, Katharine Clarke, a University and College Union (UCU) official threatened to take legal action on behalf of South West College UCU members.

In the letter addressed to Ms. Clarke seen by this newspaper, Ms. McCartan claimed that the proposed redundancies are part of the sector wide ‘Reform to Save’ scheme.

She went on to outline the reasons for the proposals.

“The financial environment in which the sector is operating remains very challenging. DfE [Department for the Economy] have identified budgetary pressures of £35million for the FE [Further Education] Sector in the 2024/2025 financial year which will impact all FE Colleges in the province,” said Ms. McCartan.

She continued by claiming that South West College is working hard to mitigate these financial pressures through “generation of additional income and other cost efficiencies” including an ongoing review of recruitment processes and decisions regarding filling posts.

“However, the scale of this potential funding shortfall is such that it is likely that the College will need to reduce the staffing complement in the 23/24 academic year in order to reduce staff costs,” she claimed.

Ms. McCartan then broke down the numbers and descriptions of Full-Time Equivalent (FTE) employees affected by these proposals which includes; 10 FTE out of 59 staff in the category of Management, 15 FTE out of 246 full time and associate lecturers and 182 part time lecturers in the category of Lecturers and 12 FTE out of 273 staff in the category of Support Staff.

Proposed implementation

Outlining the proposed implementation arrangements, Ms. McCartan explained that South West College will endeavour to achieve the proposed redundancies through expressions of interest, which will be open to applications from all staff.

“It is the intention that an expression of interest will be launched in mid-December 2023, with a closing date in January 2024. Notification of decisions will be communicated to those that registered an interest with an acceptance deadline in February 2024 for those that are confirmed for voluntary severance.

“If there is not sufficient acceptance, we would consider a wider voluntary trawl,” she said.

It is anticipated that the earliest exit for any employee, whose application for Voluntary Severance has been accepted, will be March 31, 2024 with the target date of June 30, 2024 for later release.

Ms. McCartan concluded the letter by stating the next steps which includes her plan to meet with all trade union representatives “to discuss the proposed redundancies” and to consult with them over ways of “avoiding the redundancies, reducing the number of employees to be made redundant and mitigating the consequences of the dismissals”.

In response to Ms. McCartan’s rationale for redundancy at South West College as the DfE identifying increased budgetary pressures, and as a result the college needs to reduce staffing to reduce costs, Ms. Clarke stated that this reason does not accord with the definition of a redundancy situation under the legislation.

Response

In response to Ms. McCartan’s letter, Ms. Clarke said: “Your correspondence does not evidence a diminution nor cessation of a particular kind of work.

“In fact, you state the reverse ‘Applications in areas where reduction has not been identified, however, where a replacement maybe necessary, the release of staff under this tranche of severance will result in cost savings’.”

“The reason for effecting dismissals is to satisfy DfE demands for cost cutting. This has arisen from political choices by Westminster to slash public spending in Northern Ireland. These impositions do not make your proposals legislatively compliant.

Protection

“Law exists to protect the vulnerable, guaranteeing citizens a basic floor of rights. Neither the DfE Permanent Secretary nor the Secretary of State are above it.

“Demands by those offices for College employers to contrive dismissals do not appear to have a lawful basis.”

Ms. Clarke continued by describing Ms. McCartan’s invitation to trade unions to participate in a process as amounting to “nothing more than a sham exercise”.

“There is no realistic prospect of avoiding, reducing nor mitigating redundancy against the backdrop of funding cuts set out in your letter.

“This is further exemplified by your intention to open expressions of interest in voluntary redundancy before so called ‘consultation’ with the trade unions is exhausted, a fait accompli [something that has already happened or been done and cannot be changed],” said Ms. Clarke, adding that the UCU find it “incredulous” that they have been invited to discuss a proposed redundancy payment for which Ms. McCartan has not secured funding.

“You are effectively asking staff to contemplate one of the biggest life changing career choices they can make before obtaining any authority for payment. That is neither fair nor reasonable.”

Warning

In the closing lines of her letter of response, Ms. Clarke warned Ms. McCartan that if she proceeds as is, not heeding the asks set out in her correspondence, she “may wish to seek departmental financing of legal defence and/or settlement within the business case”.

“The UCU will enthusiastically explore our right to seek protective awards for those dismissed in our bargaining unit should such become necessary,” she said.

Speaking on behalf of the College Principals’ Group, a spokesperson said: “The Department for the Economy has asked Northern Ireland’s six Further Education Colleges to begin consultation on initiating the development of a redundancy scheme, aimed at both support and academic staff, in order to ensure the future financial sustainability of the FE sector.

“Following recent public spending cuts and increasing costs, Colleges are now facing unprecedented financial pressures, including the need to address a funding gap of £35M in terms of future expenditure requirements for 2024/25.

“As individual employers, each one of our colleges is committed to embarking on a full, open and transparent consultation process and we will continue to communicate with our colleagues and Trade Unions on this issue.’’