A ONE-day strike by lecturers and technical and administrative staff caused minimal disruption to Vale colleges on Tuesday.

Members of the UNISON and NATFHE unions walked out at Evesham College and Pershore College as part of a national dispute in pursuit of a pay increase substantially higher than the 2.3 per cent offered by employers.

The lecturers' union, NATFHE, and public service workers' union, UNISON, had previously rejected that offer.

David Blades, principal of Evesham College, said: "There was fairly minimal disruption. We rescheduled one evening class. That was it." He added: "There were about 10 of our staff on strike.

"They made their point, which was really the object of the exercise." Mr Blades said that most people working in the further and higher education sectors were sympathetic to the workers' claim.

Heather Barrett-Mold, principal of Pershore College, said: "We did have some staff who were on strike but we also had quite a number who were in and delivering classes but it was mixed.

"We had issued a statement to students prior to the strike, just warning there might be some disruption.

"Quite a lot of our students are mature students so, if there were classes that weren't running, they were prepared so they had something to do, so it wasn't a problem in that respect."

She said that most of the estimated 10 staff members striking at Pershore College were NATFHE members.