UK universities brace for strike action in pensions dispute
British universities are heading towards strike action later this year, after employers insisted on requiring staff to pay higher pension contributions despite union warnings that the move would trigger a ballot on industrial action.
Read also UK universities’ pension funding hole doubles to £6.6bn
The University and College Union (UCU) said it had rejected an offer by the employers, represented by Universities UK (UUK), to swap limited increases in staff pension contributions for a two-year bar on strike action.
The UCU will go ahead with balloting its members, including researchers, librarians and other academic staff, from 9 September, which means as many as 69 universities with members in the pension scheme could see strike action in the new academic year.
Universities should give offers after results day, says study Read more Jo Grady, the UCU’s general secretary, said university management were expecting their staff to meet more of the cost of pensions because the sector had been unable to control its own spending or curb a building bonanza. “Step back and look at the wider context of this. Since the financial crisis, the proportion of overall spending on staff in the sector has dropped from 58% to about 54%, and we are seeing a lots of cuts to staff and benefits,” said Grady.
Read more @The Guardian
