INDUSTRIAL action at University College Worcester has been ruled out for the time being, following a pay settlement.

Staff belonging to the union NATFHE have been balloted about whether to accept a new deal.

Earlier this year union members shrugged off the offer of a three per cent pay rise.

Lecturers, who refused to mark papers and to attend examination board meetings last winter, have threatened to take further action this summer. But NATFHE has now agreed to a 4.3 per cent increase.

Debbie Sly, the union's branch secretary at UCW, said the pay formula was "extremely complicated" and would be phased in over several months.

"We are no longer talking about industrial action given that the employers returned to the bargaining table and made us this offer," she said.

"But there's still a large gap in pay between lecturers and people in other occupations with similar qualifications.

"This 4.3 per cent increase goes some way to closing the gap."

She said NATFHE members elsewhere in the country were talking about industrial action over redundancies, but this was not the case in Worcester.

The college in St John's is undergoing a "re-focusing of the academic portfolio", to concentrate resources on departments where student numbers are rising.

Some staff on fixed contracts have not had their contracts renewed, while other employees have been off-ered voluntary redundancy.