TEACHERS in Lancashire are to be a balloted for strike action over pay.

Leaders of the Lancashire National Union of Teachers said they had been "left with little choice" due to the Government's offer of a three-year pay deal for teachers in England and Wales.

The branch is set to ballot its 6,000 members to see if they support a strike.

Lancashire NUT members last went on strike in 1980 - and that protest was also about pay.

The pay deal, which would mean increases of 2.45per cent in 2008 and 2.3per cent in each of the following two years, divided the unions when Schools Secretary Ed Balls announced it last week.

It was higher than the 2per cent anticipated for public sector pay, and prompted angry responses from other public workers, particularly the police who were offered 1.9per cent.

Teaching union NASUWT said teachers "had fared relatively well"

But the NUT Lancashire Division - which is the biggest branch of the union - said it "cannot accept" the offer.

The NUT also disputes the Government's inflation target of 2.1per cent, which it says only reflects the Consumer Prices Index and does not take into account things like mortgage costs.

It quotes the current Retail Price Index (RPI) of 4per cent as an accurate inflation measure.

The offer is also slammed for not keeping up with private sector wage rises and repayments on student loans, which has a rate of 4.8per cent based on the RPI in March.

Lancashire NUT president Andy Brown said this was "two faced" and added: "It wants to use 4.8per cent when receiving money from hard-pressed new teachers saying that's the real inflation rate, then when talking about pay it says 2.1per cent is the real rate. Who do they think they're fooling?"

The NUT also points to the effect on teachers about to retire. Teachers' pensions depend on their final salaries, which it says are declining in real term, which means pensions are also declining.

Finally, bosses say that good teachers are no longer benefiting from pay rises based on performance, since the Government abolished the upper spine four and five pay scales in 2004 and replaced it with the "excellent teachers scheme", which it claims only 26 teachers are included on.

The branch will be asking the NUT National Executive to organise a ballot for strike action at its meeting on Thursday.