WORKERS at the Learning and Skills Council have voted overwhelmingly to strike in a new dispute over jobs, it has just been revealed. The Public and Commercial Services Union said almost nine out of 10 workers, who took part in a ballot, backed industrial

WORKERS at the Learning and Skills Council have voted overwhelmingly to strike in a new dispute over jobs, it has just been revealed.

The Public and Commercial Services Union said almost nine out of 10 workers, who took part in a ballot, backed industrial action in protest at plans to axe more than 1,000 posts.

The union, which represents staff in the 47 councils across England, said the result proved that management was "massively out of touch" with their workforce.

General Secretary Mark Serwotka said: "This overwhelming result illustrates how out of touch with their employees senior management really are, and the depth of anger they have provoked among workers by their absolutely scandalous approach to axing staff.

"It is unacceptable that staff are being treated like babies in being forced to sit 11-plus style exams in order to keep their job.

"Added to this we have the irony of the LSC deviating from best practice on redundancies by effectively forcing people to reapply for their own jobs rather than seeking to re-skill and retrain their staff."

He added: "Senior management need to recognise the damage on service delivery and the totally demoralising nature that this behaviour, together with cuts on such a scale will have, otherwise - as this ballot result clearly illustrates - staff are quite happy to put their collective foot down and strike.