WINCHESTER teachers striking for fairer pay have returned to the picket line for the third day as the government has failed to meet their demands.

Members of the National Education Union are striking after non-academised sixth form staff were left out of the government's five-and-a-half per cent pay increases in the post-16 schools budget grant.

Read more: Government 'cock up' forces college staff to strike for pay

Geography teacher Lisa Williams, 43; Physics teacher Gill Baker, 58; and Spanish teacher Lilia Crouthers, 56 (Image: Charles Elliman) Teachers at Winchester's Peter Symonds College have also taken action, having previously asserted the failure to grant them the pay rise was a 'cock-up'.

Graham Childs, 41, is the union representative for the college and said: "This is day three for us on the picket line, on strike.

Read more: More sixth form college strikes possible, union leaders say

@hampshire_chronicle NEU member staff at Peter Symonds College have taken to the picket line for a third day. They say the government is still not listening to them and that sympathy is not enough. #winchester #strike #petersymondscollege ♬ original sound - Hampshire Chronicle

"We're still here because we're still demanding that pay justice. So far, we've had no movement from the government on whether we're gonna get the same five-and-a-half per cent pay rise that they're getting in schools and the academised sixth form colleges."

He continued: "We're no further, we're no closer, to a resolution."

Anna Whitt, a 57-year-old Spanish teacher at Peter Symonds said: "Fundamentally, the unfairness that we're not regarded as being worthy of the same pay rise as our colleagues in primary schools, in secondary schools, up and down the country is having a real impact on staff morale.

"We feel undervalued for the work we do."