Union bosses have demanded answers after it was announced 26 jobs at Gateshead College are at risk due to a financial deficit.
The college confirmed the redundancies would be made as it starts to implement a three year "recovery plan" after forensic accountants were called in investigate the deficit, which is believed to be around £6m.
The roles are believed to be from business support areas.
Clare Williams, Regional Secretary of Unison, said the news was very disappointing.
She added: "We have been to a meeting with the senior management team and expressed our concern.
"We also raised a number of questions and were very clear we wanted staff to be treated properly.
"We are meeting with all Unison members and senior staff through the consultation.
"We asked questions about how we are now in this situation."
Ms Williams said they want to be able to respond to any proposals with an alternative.
She added: "Support staff do a really important job and we know they should not think about getting rid of support staff without an alternative proposal.
"We are calling on the college to work with Unison, and Unison will work with staff during this very difficult time."
It comes after disgruntled employees, who wanted to remain anonymous, said they were unhappy with how the situation had been handled.
One person said: "Everyone is really angry. I think it has been handled wrong. People were sent back to the staff room and there was no liaison between the HR department and the Union."
Another said: "It's people like cleaners, receptionists, low paid admin staff.
"There's a lot of anger."
Chris Toon, Acting Principal at Gateshead College said: “As a result of funding reductions along with an unplanned financial deficit, the college has developed and started to implement a three-year recovery plan which involves the proposed reduction of some roles.
“Currently 26 posts are at risk, mainly from business support areas, however no final decisions will be made until consultation concludes. We have opened a voluntary severance scheme to mitigate as far as possible the number of compulsory redundancies.
“These proposals will help us address some short-term financial pressures the college is facing at the moment but will also bring our staffing costs in line with sector benchmarks whilst ensuring we can continue to deliver the highest standards of education and training for our customers and stakeholders.
“These decisions are extremely difficult to make, particularly because we have such hard-working, committed staff, and myself and my colleagues will be doing everything we can to support those potentially affected.”
The independent team will publish a full report on their investigation this month, which is also when Gateshead College is due to publish its annual accounts.
A spokesman for Gateshead College previously said: “There was an unplanned deficit in the last financial year and an investigation by a team of independent forensic accountants has been commissioned by the governors to establish the explanation for this; for obvious reasons we can’t comment further until that is concluded in January.
“As soon as the situation came to light, the college re-modelled its budget and produced a sound three-year financial plan on confirmed income which returns the college to a financial position showing a surplus by 2020/2021."
