HUNDREDS of lecturers and staff from the county's further education colleges will be manning pickets lines on Tuesday in a strike over pay.

Classes have been cancelled at both Kendal College and Barrow's Furness College for the duration of the nationwide one-day strike called by UNISON and the National Association of Teachers in Further and Higher Education (NATFHE).

Kendal College is keeping its doors open to students for private study but few classes are expected to go ahead as around 100 employees, including lecturers and administrative staff, join in picketing at the Milnthorpe Road site and the Creative Arts building on Beezon Road.

Meanwhile, at Furness College students have been told to stay at home as NATFHE expects 99 per cent of the college's lecturers to take part in the industrial action which is pressing the Association of Colleges (AoC) to put higher education salaries on a par with those of school teachers and to boost pay for support staff, which UNISON says has fallen behind other public sector workers.

At present a college lecturer's starting salary is £3,000 less than a school teacher's and £6,000 less at the top of the scale.

After five years in the job a school teacher could earn £25,764, compared to a lecturer's £ 21,374.

The AoC itself says it cannot re-enter talks until it gets clear commitment from the Government for extra funding to support pay rises.