A strike that will affect hundreds of thousands of students in further education colleges looks set to go ahead after employers today refused to increase their 2.3% pay offer to lecturers and other staff.
The Association of Colleges, which represents almost all the sixth-form and general further education colleges in England and Wales, said there was no more money available to fund a pay increase.
Principals blamed the government for not giving them more cash this year, as the 1% rise in their budgets promised in July's comprehensive spending review will not be paid until April next year.
Ivor Jones, the association's director of employment policy, said: "I must stress, with regret, that the situation colleges find themselves in financially is no different than it was at the time that the association made its final recommendation to the unions in the summer."
Five out of the six unions have balloted members on a one-day stoppage on November 5 or will do so before then. They resent the fact that college lecturers' pay has fallen far behind that of schoolteachers, while this year universities have offered 3.5% to their staff.
Lecturers in Natfhe, the Association of Teachers and Lecturers and supporters from the GMB, Unison and the Transport and General Workers Union are all likely to join the strike.
Barry Lovejoy, of the unions' joint secretariat, said they shared the college principals' view that the government was failing to fund colleges properly.
But he added: "This does not absolve the AoC from its responsibility as an employer and our members will be incensed, as will all FE staff."
