Bodies representing universities have said that their best offer is on the table as they prepare for three days of strike action over pay, pensions and working conditions by union members this week.
Universities UK (UUK) and the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) have said they do not know what else they can offer members of the University and College Union (UCU), who will down tools at 58 universities from 1 to 3 December in a long-running, complex dispute.
The union is concerned about cuts to guaranteed pensions – namely changes to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) pension – pay reductions, casual employment contracts, pay gaps and “unsafe” workloads.
But Stuart McLean, head of pensions at Universities UK and member of the USS joint negotiating committee, said that there has been “quite some movement” from employers over the past four years, and in that time employers’ contributions into the USS scheme have increased from 18% to 21.4%.
“I’m not quite sure where employers can really go from here – we’ve pushed the trustees and the regulators as far as we can and came up with what we think is a really good and fair deal to maintain the sustainability of the scheme,” he told Personnel Today.
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“In many ways I’m not quite sure what more the [union] would want from this. [They] have got a defined benefits scheme, that’s safe, and the contributions have gone up…The best offer is on the table.”
The UCU has claimed that changes made to the USS pension between 2011 to 2019 have meant that a typical member will be around £240,000 worse off when they retire. The union wants these changes reversed.
McLean said that universities and pension trustees were committed to introducing more flexible pension offerings with lower contributions and looking at the governance of the pensions scheme.
To resolve the pay and working conditions dispute, UCU is demanding a £2.5k pay increase, as well as action to tackle “unmanageable workloads, pay inequality and insecure contracts”.
Raj Jethwa, chief executive of the UCEA, said that it was at the “very limit of what we can offer” in terms of pay and said that it had made offers on several non-pay issues that the union was concerned about, including action in tackling ethnicity, gender and disability pay gaps via career development and support.
“We feel we’ve done all we can and this strike is disappointing to be honest. It’s disappointing for the staff who will go in strike and lose pay, and it’s disappointing for the students– they’re the victims of this disruption.”
The UCU has been contacted for a response.
Separately, the union has planned to ballot members at 42 universities on strike action in 2022. The re-ballots come after a number of branches “narrowly missed the turnout threshold, in some cases by only one or two votes”, it said.
Last week UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “Next week staff at dozens of campuses will be going on strike over attacks on their pensions, pay and working conditions. In the new year, staff at 42 more universities could join them for a period of sustained and escalating industrial action.
“There is still time to avoid this disruption, but that is in the gift of vice chancellors who sadly are still choosing to ignore the serious concerns of staff rather than address them.”
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