Mike Whatmore is a union rep and Horticulture lecturer at Newcastle college and is under threat of redundancy. College managers announced a small number of redundancies at the start of July and intention to make Mike redundant at the end of July. Giving such short notice means that almost all educational establishments will have filled any vacancies for September.

To make matters worse, managers are claiming that his is a distinct job so Mike is not in a redundancy pool. This is not a case of having to apply for your own job, which is all too common in FE and would be bad enough. This is a case of 'Your job is redundant. End of story.' Mike is extremely well qualified holding the Kew Diploma in Horticulture, the most respected qualification in the sector. Yet the lack of a redundancy pool means that his wealth of experience is irrelevant in the process

Mike is an effective UCU Rep, who robustly defends members and has been proactive in highlighting health and safety issues at the college. The branch believes that this is the reason he is being faced with the sack at such short notice.

Please sign the petition at https://ucu.org.uk/mikewhatmore

We the undersigned call on management at the Newcastle College to immediately remove its threat of redundancy from Mike Whatmore and to allow him to continue his important role as a hugely experienced health and safety rep and horticulture lecturer at the college.