Hundreds of teaching assistants are to strike in a dispute over pay.

Schools across Brighton and Hove face a day of disruption during the industrial action next Wednesday.

Many classrooms are expected to be closed after union representatives confirmed the strike at a meeting yesterday.

GMB union officials met members at Brighton Town Hall to discuss results of a ballot involving 700 teaching and general assistants. They warned they would not back down after rejecting a pay offer from Brighton and Hove City Council.

The strike has been planned to coincide with a meeting of the council's policy and resources meeting, one of its most powerful. Union representatives said a further strike on November 24, the day of a full council meeting, could be averted if an acceptable pay offer was made.

The results of last week's ballot showed 88 per cent of GMB members and 94 per cent of Unison members in favour of industrial action. There was a turnout of 96 per cent in the GMB and 94 per cent in Unison.

The council insists teaching assistants will end up getting more under new pay proposals but union members say they will lose out.

Many said they would notice little or no change to their monthly wage packet and complained the amount of extra unpaid hours they do would still go unrecognised.

The assistants feel they have been overlooked for years. They say they have an active role in educating the children they look after. Many have NVQ and City and Guild qualifications and accused the council of failing to treat them as professionals.

Beth Rogers, 26, a teaching assistant for three years, said she was forced to take on two or three extra jobs to make ends meet. She also works as a cleaner, with people who need respite care and in a pub.

She said: "It is an insult. No one wants to go on strike but I don't think we have got any choice. We have been backed into a corner."

The council says it has changed the way pay is calculated to ensure all employees are treated equally. Instead of paying teaching assistants in special schools for 49.5 weeks of the year, they will be paid for 45.7 weeks - in line with other non-teaching school staff.

A spokeswoman said: "We regret the action taken by the trade unions. It is totally unnecessary to cause this type of disruption to children's education."

She said teaching assistants in Brighton and Hove were paid more than their counterparts in East and West Sussex.

The package on offer meant about 30 per cent would get an immediate increase of more than five per cent and 60 per cent would get a rise of up to five per cent. Fewer than ten per cent would see no change to their pay and no-one would have a pay cut. She said the union demands would cost the council an extra £700,000 on top of the £850,000 it was spending on pay increases.