STAFF at Nelson & Colne College could strike over bosses’ failure to award a pay deal agreed four years ago.

The University and College Union announced yesterday that Nelson & Colne College was one of 11 institutions where its members would be balloted for industrial action as chiefs were still refusing to honour a national pay deal thrashed out in 2004.

Union representatives said they expect members at the Pendle college to opt for industrial action in January unless the deal is honoured.

But college bosses said the management team had done all it could to implement the recommendations and said conditions for its teachers were ‘generous'.

In 2004, a national agreement was drawn up that heralded pay parity for college lecturers with schoolteachers.

It came after figures revealed 50 per cent of school teachers got allowances worth between £2,364 and £11,557 per annum on top of their basic earnings.

The new scales were to provide higher salaries for new lecturers and faster progression through pay bands.

The colleges’ failure to implement the agreement has been described by the union as one of the longest 'IOUs’ from management to staff in the history of industrial relations.

Alison Gander, chairman of the union’s Nelson and Colne College branch, said: “Nelson and Colne College has enjoyed relatively good industrial relations over the last few years.

“Management had at least committed themselves to working towards closing the gap between our pay scale and the national harmonised pay scale.

“However, the new principal and the current senior management team say they do not believe that a national pay scale exists.

"It is difficult to see how the promised pay talks scheduled for January can proceed if this is the case.

“Most of us have been prepared to work beyond the terms of our contracts to help our students succeed, but if the principal and senior management team will not recognise this by fully implementing the national pay scale, I don't think the goodwill will last much longer.

“Our members will be balloted to see if they are prepared to take industrial action over our claim and, in these circumstances, I think the answer has to be yes.”

Lyn Surgeon, principal at the college, said: “The outcomes of negotiations in 2004 were recommendations and not a binding agreement. They were based on local colleges’ affordability.

“Our teaching pay scales at College are in line with many other similar institutions and other terms and conditions for our teachers are generous for the sector.”

The ballot will open tomorrow and the result will be announced on January 12.

If members vote in favour of industrial action a strike is likely to take place at the end of January.