University of York staff will strike for two days next week in protest at national pay and modernisation proposals by employers.

Members of the Association of University Teachers (AUT) will attempt to bring higher education to a standstill on Tuesday and Wednesday as part of an ongoing dispute with the Universities and Colleges Employers' Association (UCES).

The AUT say lectures and seminars will be cancelled, with picket lines manned at entrances. There will also be a regional rally in Leeds on Wednesday.

More than 700 academics, researchers and support staff from York are among the AUT's 47,000 members nationwide.

York AUT spokesperson Simon Parker said: "Staff at the University of York are enraged by the employers' proposals, which would see staff lose up to £47,000 in career earnings. And they are determined to make a stand and show management that they mean business."

The AUT also claims that plans to end national pay bargaining will lead to greater pay discrimination against women.

A recent study by the union found that female lecturers earn one to three per cent less than their male colleagues, reducing to ten per cent where pay is determined locally. Other unions representing staff at the university, such as the NATFHE, have accepted the pay modernisation agreement.

The university's deputy vice-chancellor, Professor Felicity Riddy, told the Evening Press: "We do not believe the strike is necessary because at York we do not intend to implement the agreement in a way that would disadvantage any staff group. We are working with the other unions and hope that the AUT will soon join us."

Industrial action was given the go-ahead by the AUT last week after two-thirds of members taking part in a month-long postal ballot voted in favour of going on strike.

The strike will coincide with a National Union of Students week of action against top-up fees. York University Students' Union (YUSU) will be holding an anti-top-up fees fair in the university's Central Hall on Wednesday.

YUSU president Chris Jones said students did not seem too concerned about the AUT's strike and many welcomed the chance of a couple of days off "to catch up on work".

"The entire university is not going to shut down and people are not going to lose two days teaching," he said. "Most staff are moving their teaching to other times."

Updated: 08:31 Friday, February 20, 2004