A £32m pay boost for college lecturers and support staff, announced today, has failed to avert the sector's strike plans for November.
Natfhe leaders said while it welcomed any extra money, it would do little to address the overall decline in salaries, or bridge the 12% pay gap between further education colleges and schools.
Announcing the pay package, higher education minister Margaret Hodge said the money will be given to colleges at the end of this month. Of the £32m, £20m will be allocated to lecturers and £12m to non-teaching staff.
The government claims the money, along with the £110m already announced, would support performance-related payments of £1,000 to 130,000 lecturers and payments of £500 to 24,000 support staff in the 2002/03 academic year.
However, Natfhe members argue that the money, added to the 2.3% pay offer currently on the table from the employers, the Association of Colleges, will mean a lecturer earning £23,000 will only receive an extra £760.
The union said plans for a joint strike on November 5 by five of the six college unions were still on the cards.
Natfhe members have already voted in favour of strike action and college support staff are to be balloted next month.
The union has renewed its call to the AoC to restart negotiations on a consolidated pay deal.
Paul Mackney, Natfhe general secretary, said: "On its own, this package will do nothing to appease the anger of lecturers and support staff who are currently facing a derisory 2.3% pay offer. I have no doubt that there will be massive support for the planned stoppage on November 5."
He added: "The announcement has left us with a feeling of deja vu. Just prior to the last general election, the government issued a glossy leaflet promising college lecturers payments of up to £2,000 per year through the Teaching Pay Initiative. Two years on there is little evidence that lecturers have seen anything like that amount of money."
Today's announcement was followed by news that, from this month, "golden hello" payments of up to £4,000 would be available for around 600 new FE recruits teaching subjects that have experienced staff shortages. This is in addition to a government programme, launched earlier this month, to repay over time the student loans of new FE teachers in shortage subjects.
Mr Mackney dismissed the new scheme saying monetary incentives would "convince very few to come into a sector where general pay levels are some £3,000 below schoolteachers' pay".
