THREE Worcestershire colleges are set to be hit by strikes this week as lecturers stage a one-day walk out over pay.

Members of the NATFHE union at Evesham and Malvern Hills Colleges, Kidderminster College and North East Worcestershire (NEW) College, Bromsgrove, will take action on Thursday.

The demonstration is expected to disrupt lessons for hundreds of students across the county, with 13 colleges in the West Midlands affected.

"It's not a dispute of our making," said Chris May, a spokesman for the National Association of Teachers in Further & Higher Education union.

"Two years ago we agreed a pay deal that should have come in from August 1, 2004. At some colleges we are still waiting for the increase."

Three-quarters of lecturers balloted in NATFHE agreed to strike over the pay differences with their school counterparts.

The union claims that some institutions have ignored recommendations from the Association of Colleges, made in 2003, to increase lecturers' wages by eight per cent.

The AoC, which recommended the deal but leaves enforcement to individual colleges, said it felt the strike was "premature" and urged lecturers to reconsider.

"We would ask NATFHE to continue to discuss pay arrangments locally in good faith without resorting to this action, " said Sue Dutton AoC deputy chief executive