May 24
This is a short update with a list of resources that members can use to navigate their way through recent events with USS, and to see what your elected representatives and actuarial advisers have been saying about them. As always, if you have any questions or would like anything clarifying, please get in contact with …
Apr 28
Lines dividing the UCU and UUK positions regarding the 2020 USS Trustee valuation are regrettably becoming clearer. In an email sent yesterday, Jo Grady wrote that, rather than attempt to pressure the trustees into reforming their reverse-engineered and unjustified valuation, UUK ‘is proposing massive cuts to USS members’ retirement benefits and is consulting [our employers] …
Apr 19
Overview The USS 2020 valuation is not fit for purpose, the governance of USS is not fit for purpose. The behaviour of the Pensions Regulator is at odds with its remit. The situation has changed considerably since 2019 when UUK had ‘full confidence in the way the giant USS scheme was being run’ FT, July …
Jan 06
We are facing significant challenges both at this institution and in the sector generally. The way we can flex our muscles and be heard is to express ourselves through our ballot for industrial action in respect of the USS pension. You will have seen emails from our Gen Sec indicating that there has been some …
Dec 12
Dear University of Kent UCU members, Please VOTE today! As well as the General Election though, please do vote in the UCU USS re-ballot (you don’t need to be in USS to vote). You should have received a new ‘pension’ ballot Following our historic strike action over pay, workload, casualisation and equalities in the last …
Dec 09
As we’re in the process of reballotting on pensions, we thought this might be of interest to members. It’s a short Twitter thread from a colleague at Sheffield who is one of the national UCU negotiators, discussing a document that USS has just released concerning the 2020 valuation. https://twitter.com/sam_marsh101/status/1202241550593482752 Judging by his analysis here, it …
Oct 17
About Pensions 2017’s planned changes to the USS pension scheme threatened to reduce total average pension income by over £200,000 per employee. The strike of 2018 had remarkable effect, causing an independent panel to be appointed to re-assess the health of the scheme and interim arrangements to be made, retaining defined benefits at a temporarily …
Oct 17
Dear All, Some UCU members on precarious contracts, or who are financially unstable for other reasons, are understandably anxious about striking and its financial consequences. If this is you, Kent branch UCU has good news for you: we’ve got your back. We have a healthy strike fund out of which we can subsidise lost income from the very first day of industrial action. Claimants last …
Oct 08
About Casualisation Around 70% of the 49,000 researchers in higher education are on fixed-term contracts and there are 37,000 teaching staff on fixed-term contracts, the majority of them hourly paid. In addition, there are a further 71,000 teachers employed as “atypical academics” who are mostly hourly-paid. These colleagues have job insecurity which results in financial …
