College leaders in England and Wales are telling the education secretary that it is up to her to avert a pay strike by their staff.

The one-day strike, on 5 November, is a protest by about 70,000 lecturers and ancillary staff at a 2.3% pay offer from the Association of Colleges.

The association's chief executive, David Gibson, said colleges did not have the money to make a better offer.

He said: "The ball is in Estelle Morris's court. She has funds available to avert this strike.

"Providing an extra �30m this year and �80m next year would enable colleges to match the 3.5% pay offer made to comparable staff in other sectors.

Union ballots

"Alternatively, she could allow colleges to find an extra 1% by freeing up some of the funds which the government has ring-fenced, preventing us from spending them on pay."

Lecturers represented by Natfhe have already voted to strike and support staff in Unison, the GMB and the TGWU are being balloted this month.

The Association of Teachers and Lecturers has not announced plans to hold ballots but said its members were supportive of strike action.

It could affect students at hundreds of sixth form colleges and general further education colleges in England and Wales.

The unions have called the offered 2.3% increase "derisory". The original offer had been 1.5%.

Extra funds

Salaries for school teachers are decided centrally by an independent review body.

In the case of college staff, pay is negotiated centrally but settled locally - often with union complaints that an agreed rise is not paid in full.

A spokeswoman for the Department for Education and Skills said "We are committed to ensuring better rewards for high performing FE staff.

"The spending review settlement is a good one for FE.

"With the 1% per annum real terms increase in core unit of funding, together with the investment we have already made, the sector will be able to make considerable progress on reforming and improving pay arrangements."

But at the Association of Colleges, David Gibson said the 1% extra would not be introduced until 2003-4.

"Maybe later - certainly too late for colleges to improve their pay offer for this year," he said.