By David McKee, University of Strathclyde UCU branch committee
The University and Colleges Union has once again had to call strikes in order to defend the pension scheme and to continue the fights for equality and decent working conditions. Staff across the Higher Education sector have braved the recent storms to make it clear to bosses that key workers in education must be treated better.
The pension dispute is down to employer proposals to cut benefits by an average of 35%. Coming on top of previous attacks this means that for some members final benefits will have dropped from the 50% salary promised at the time of joining the scheme to closer to 20% salary when they finally retire. This is a huge reduction that will seriously impact quality of life in old age.
These draconian cuts are not necessary. The USS pension scheme is in rude health. The employers say it is in deficit, but this is based on a valuation from March 2020 when the markets were in crisis at the start of the covid pandemic. Since then the scheme assets have grown by about £25billion to reach a total close to £90billion. Yet employers are point blank refusing to wait until a new valuation can be undertaken, preferring to cut benefits now in the knowledge it will be much harder to claw them back in future.
This assault on the pension scheme is not about finances. The USS trustees have acknowledged that the UCU counter-proposals are fundable. This is a political attack on UCU, one of the hardest campaigning unions in recent times, and on the HE sector workers who are regarded by the Tory party as their natural enemies. We know that if we lose this pensions dispute they will come for others, like the teachers, next.
Four Fights
Universities are publicly funded institutions. Is it not therefore a complete disgrace that they remain bastions of inequality where on average there is a 15% gender pay gap, a 17% race pay gap and a 9% disability pay gap? We also face continued use of fixed term and other casualised contracts, including zero hours, and massive mental and physical health issues associated with unbearable workloads. All of this at a time where Universities across the country are ploughing billions of pounds into shiny new buildings (£1billion at Strathclyde University alone, even more at Glasgow University). There is no cash shortage in HE – only a shortage of decency in the leadership.
At the time of writing UUK have indicated that employers have overwhelmingly rejected the UCU pensions proposals and it is highly likely that damaging cuts to pension provision will be imposed on the workers. This dispute will not be over. You can expect to see more pickets and protests in the weeks and months to come. We simply cannot afford to let this pass.
Sadly this will mean further disruption to education provision for students but we have been heartened by the almost universal recognition that our working conditions are their learning conditions.
Ultimately this fight is for the future of higher education – and to ensure that what we pass on to the next generation is about free, independent learning and not in the pocket of Tory governments in Westminster.