Staff at a St Albans and Welwyn Garden City college may go on strike following a dispute over pay.

A ballot for strike action at Oaklands College opens today (Thursday), with members of the University and College Union (UCU) protesting the £7,000 pay gap between schools and colleges.

The ballot will close on Monday, March 11. If staff back strike action, they will join colleagues from other colleges in the third wave of strikes over pay and conditions. Previous UCU strikes took place at six colleges in November and 13 colleges last month, in response to staff seeing the value of their pay decline by 25 per cent over the past decade.

UCU regional official Jane Thompson said: “Staff at Oaklands College are fed up with seeing their pay held down and believe the college can afford more than it is currently offering.

“Strikes will continue until colleges show that they are prioritising their staff.”

Oaklands principal Zoe Hancock said: “Further education colleges have not received funding increases for a number of years. In spite of this Oaklands College has given a pay award at or above sector averages over this period. We would of course be very disappointed if there was any disruption to our students if staff did choose to go on strike.”