Further education college lecturers are to be balloted on strike action over pay, their union, Natfhe, announced today.
If its 26,000 members in 221 of the 280 colleges in England vote "yes" on Friday there will be a one-day strike on November 16, the union said. Natfhe said it was taking the action after what it described as "a lowly 2.8% pay offer" from college employers.
But the Association of Colleges, which represents the college heads, predicted that only a small number of colleges would be affected and blamed financial difficulties for the potential dispute.
Barry Lovejoy, of Natfhe, said: "Pay chaos has reigned in colleges for far too long. By accepting this year's pitiful pay offer, Natfhe would have effectively been giving the green light for the scandalous gap between college lecturers and schoolteachers to grow even bigger.
"To add insult to injury, lecturers at 65% of colleges haven't even had last year's rise. Unless this sorry situation is addressed, both by the Association of Colleges and the government, colleges will not be able to recruit desperately-needed new teachers, who will understandably opt for better paid jobs in schools.
"With half the further education workforce due to retire within 10 years, this is a disaster waiting to happen," he added.
Sue Dutton, the AoC's deputy chief executive, said she expected only a small number of colleges would experience industrial action. "We would argue that this will be as a consequence of them experiencing financial difficulties due to the current funding regime. We would hope that rather than Natfhe resorting to this strike action they make every endeavour to discuss matters locally in the interests of learners and the communities they serve," she said.
The difficulty experienced by further education colleges in recruiting qualified staff was highlighted by Ofsted inspectors today. "The recruitment of well qualified staff remains a challenge for colleges in several curriculum areas," said the watchdog's annual report. It added that in construction, engineering and ICT many staff lacked recent industrial experience.
