Universities on strike warning as UCU announces pay and pension ballots

Earlier this month the union wrote to 69 institutions warning that if they fail to defend USS pensions then the union would prepare for an industrial action ballot in September. The union’s higher education committee (HEC) met today and set out a timetable for that ballot on USS pensions and also for a pay ballot to run at the same time.

The ballots will run from Monday 9 September to Wednesday 30 October and the union’s HEC will meet to consider the results on Friday 1 November. The ballots will be disaggregated so each institution will be polled separately. Last year, university campuses were brought to a standstill by unprecedented levels of strike action.

The union said universities had done nothing to address the declining value of its members’ pay, which has fallen in real-terms by 21% in the last decade. UCU members in around 140 universities will be balloted over pay. Those institutions include the 69 where members will also being balloted USS pensions.

The USS pension scheme has been hit by a series of high-profile scandals in recent weeks after a former trustee spoke out saying her efforts to establish the level of the scheme’s deficit had been obstructed. That claim is now being looked at by the Pensions Regulator. Instead of dealing with the claims, USS has launched a probe into the whistleblower.

The universities’ representatives, Universities UK (UUK), has said it is confident that the USS trustee board is “conducting business in line with its fiduciary responsibilities” and that expressing no confidence in the USS board or executive “would be an irresponsible move”.

Despite the inaction from both USS and UUK, the chair of the work and pensions select committee Frank Field has written to the chief executive of the Pensions Regulator asking a series of questions about the whistleblower’s complaint.

UCU head of higher education Paul Bridge said: ‘Pay has been held down for too long and USS members are running out of patience. Every day seems to bring some new damning revelation about USS. Their response has been wholly inadequate, as has that of Universities UK. If universities are not prepared to work with us on pay and pensions, then they will face serious disruption later this year.’

* List of institutions UCU wrote to over USS:

1. University of Aberdeen
2. Aberystwyth University
3. Aston University
4. Bangor University
5. University of Bath
6. Queen’s University of Belfast
7. Birkbeck, University of London
8. University of Birmingham
9. University of Bradford
10. University of Bristol
11. Brunel University, London
12. University of Cambridge
13. Cardiff University
14. City, University of London
15. Courtauld Institute of Art
16. Cranfield University
17. University of Dundee
18. University of Durham
19. University of East Anglia
20. University of Edinburgh
21. University of Essex
22. University of Exeter
23. University of Glasgow
24. Goldsmiths University, London
25. Heriot-Watt University
26. University of Hull
27. Imperial College
28. Institute of Development Studies
29. University of Keele
30. University of Kent
31. King’s College London
32. University of Lancaster
33. University of Leeds
34. University of Leicester
35. Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine
36. University of Liverpool
37. London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine
38. London School of Economics and Political Science
39. Loughborough University
40. University of Manchester
41. Newcastle University
42. University of Nottingham
43. Open University
44. University of Oxford
45. Queen Mary University of London
46. University of Reading
47. Royal Holloway, University of London
48. Royal Veterinary College
49. Ruskin College
50. School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS)
51. University of Salford
52. Scottish Association for Marine Science
53. University of London (Institutes and activities)
54. University of Sheffield
55. University of Southampton
56. University of St Andrews
57. St George’s University of London
58. University of Stirling
59. University of Strathclyde
60. University of Surrey
61. University of Sussex
62. Swansea University
63. University of Wales Trinity St David’s
64. University of Ulster
65. University of Suffolk
66. The School of Pharmacy and IOE, University College London
67. University of Wales
68. University of Warwick
69. University of York