A city councillor has said the CEO of Nottingham College needs to "look at his position seriously" following a dispute with staff over new contracts.
In an open letter, signed by 33 Nottingham City Councillors, they have called for the college board to meet with a group of council representatives as a matter of urgency.
Staff at the college have held various strike days since July due to a dispute over new contracts.
The ongoing dispute concerns new contracts which were brought in during the merger between New College Nottingham and Central College Nottingham.
UCU, the University College Union, said its members - who have not received a pay rise since 2010 - had been threatened with dismissal if they did not sign the contracts.
However, the college boss, John van de Laarschot, said the contract changes were brought in after the merger in order to prevent a situation where people are are being paid different amounts for the same job.
Steve Battlemuch, Labour councillor for Wollaton west, said : "He has to look very seriously at his position. Personally, I think his actions in the last few weeks and his motivations have come into question."
He said the letter was a "last ditch attempt" from the councillors to hold the college board to account.
In the letter, the councillors said: "We would like the board to meet with a group of council representatives as a matter of urgency to discuss our concerns directly.
"From our understanding of the local further education scene, we are aware that further education teachers in Nottingham have had no pay rise of any sort in one college for ten years, and in the other no cost of living or living pay rise for a similar length of time.
"We know that further education teachers have tried to deliver a good level of education to their students despite local and national uncertainty, increased workloads and cuts in funding.
"We are conscious of the tensions around workload, pay cuts and what seems from our constituent’s comments to us a staggering lack of trust by staff of all kinds in the college leadership - including its board – which can only have a deleterious impact on the functioning of the college.
"We are quite incredulous that the board has allowed a situation to develop where teaching staff are considering four further weeks of industrial action.
"There should be no further interruption to the learning available to the people of Nottingham.
"Nottingham has some of the highest levels of deprivation in the UK. Further education overwhelmingly provides for working class communities."
The letter concluded that the college board has "failed to exercise the accountable stewardship it owes to the city."
Some students have previously told Nottinghamshire Live they have missed a number of lessons because of the strike action.
A college spokesman said: “The college is aware of the letter from the councillors and has passed it to the clerk to the college governors who will respond on behalf of the Corporation Board.
"In an effort to bring industrial action to an end, the college board agreed unanimously to engage the services of ACAS (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service) to mediate further discussions between the College and UCU.
"It is vitally important that both parties work together to reach agreement and avoid future strike action so that our students endure no further disruption to their learning.
"The board agreed that ACAS could provide additional support to both parties in the negotiation process, in the hope that third party intervention may move things forward swiftly so that our operations can return to normal after the half term break on Monday, November 4.
"The College met with ACAS yesterday, Thursday October 17 and ACAS are due to visit the College formally on Monday October 21 in an attempt to resolve the dispute as quickly as possible.”
The UCU head of further education Andrew Harden said: "Local councillors are right to ask serious questions about how the college is being run. They are right to say that the college is putting opportunities for local people at risk.
"This is not a dispute caused by staff, it was triggered by the college threatening to sack lecturers unless they signed new contracts that cut pay, holidays and sickness protection."
The next wave of strikes will consist of three and four-day walkouts over a four-week period covering most of November.
The dates for the next wave of strikes are:
· Tuesday 5, Wednesday 6 and Thursday 7 November
· Monday 11, Tuesday 12, Wednesday 13 and Thursday 14 November
· Monday 18, Wednesday 20 and Friday 22,
· Monday 25, Tuesday 26, Thursday 28 and Friday 29 November
