John Boken is an NEU Representative at Shrewsbury Colleges Group.

He has been charged with Gross Misconduct and issued with a final warning for an error during lockdown when he was looking after his 2 children and working from home whilst his wife worked as an NHS healthcare professional. He had no other warnings on his record. His appeal is at the start of April.

This is part of the victimisation of John for his trade union activities. He has been criticised for his efforts to conduct a health and safety survey on his campus and for attending/organising an NEU meeting for parents in relation to health and safety of students, pupils and staff during the pandemic. In addition, the victimisation of John accelerated after he reported an incident of racism on his campus which has not been properly investigated and which saw no action taken by the college. The college must end this victimisation now and reverse a decision that in our view is simply preparation for sacking John at a later date.

This is a struggle for the right to organise and for racism to be robustly addressed.

Please support John Boken.