By Lucy Caulkett
University staff at over 50 universities have formally begun their scheduled stikes in a dispute over pensions.
Lecturers have walked out at several U.K universities including Oxford and Cambridge have commenced a month-long strike campaign.
Petitions signed by 80,000 students, many backing the lecturers, are demanding refunds for lost teaching.
More than half a million teaching hours will be lost during an escalating four-week strike programme:
On the first week, staff at 57 universities walk out this Thursday and Friday
On the second week, the staff at the 57 will be joined by staff at four more institutions on a three-day strike from Monday
weeks three and four – staff a total of 64 universities will strike for nine days. Members will refuse to reschedule classes lost on strike days.
But Mr. Gyimah says students “deserve to receive the education that they are paying for. For many, this is a vital time in their studies”.
Pension deficit
Both sides have not responded to increasing pressure to return to negotiations. Universities UK (UUK), which represents university employers, issued a statement warning that keeping none affordable pensions benefits for university staff would hit current students hardest.
A spokesman insisted it was open to further negotiations and accused the union of refusing to budge on its original “unaffordable” proposal. “If a credible, affordable solution were to be put forward by the union, employers would want to consider it,” he said.
UUK claim the cost of future pensions has risen by one third in the last three years and claims the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) – at the center of the dispute – has a deficit of £6.1bn, which by law must be reduced. To meet union demands, employers would have to cut jobs and research to pay more into pensions, at the expense of students’ education, it says.
”Union leaders need to listen to the concerns of the Pensions Regulator and USS. Pensions risk is very real. Their dismissal of the funding challenges is hugely concerning, the very reason employers and the scheme must act responsibly to protect pensions and students.
We remain at the negotiating table to engage with UCU on the long-term sustainability of the scheme and we continue to seek further talks.
This industrial action is targeted at students. It will be young people and the next generation of students who will also suffer if their education deteriorates because employers are forced to make cuts to pay more into pensions. Employers are committed to continuing to pay in 18% to staff pensions for the next five years, double the private sector average”.
RETIREMENT
Members of the University and College Union are striking because changes to the Universities Superannuation Scheme will leave a typical lecturer almost £10,000 a year worse off in retirement.
Younger academics could lose almost half of their total retirement income, according to the union.
The employers’ group Universities UK says the scheme has a deficit of more than £6bn which it cannot ignore.
“This industrial action is targeted at students. It will be young people and the next generation of students who will also suffer if their education deteriorates because employers are forced to make cuts to pay more into pensions,” said a Universities UK spokesman.
The proposed pension plan changes the current USS arrangements from a defined benefit scheme that gives members a guaranteed income in retirement, to a defined contribution scheme, where pensions are subject to changes in the stock market.
The union says the existing scheme is performing well and UUK’s determination to push through the changes and refusal to compromise has left them no alternative but to strike.
“Staff are angry and significant disruption on campuses across the UK now looks inevitable,” said UCU general secretary Sally Hunt.
More than half a million teaching hours will be lost during an escalating four-week strike programme. In the first week, the staff at 57 universities walk out this Thursday and Friday.
In the second week, the 57 universities will be joined by staff at four more institutions on a three-day strike from Monday
weeks three and four – staff a total of 64 universities will strike for nine days.