The Friday email: 6 October 2023

USS pensions dispute: justice has prevailed

Yesterday (Thursday 5 October) general secretary Jo Grady announced that justice has prevailed in our long fight for USS pensions. 

The employers' representative body Universities UK (UUK) has agreed to reverse the 35% cut made to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) and to restore what has been lost. You can click here for the full announcement and here for the press release.

The agreement is recommended unanimously by UCU's negotiators, and will be put before UCU's elected representatives on the higher education committee (HEC) who meet in the afternoon of Friday 6 October. If HEC agrees, then a full members' vote will take place to ratify this agreement.

UCU Rising: vote now!

The higher education industrial action ballot over the pay and working conditions dispute opened on Tuesday 19 September; members are urged to vote YES now and to support the drive to 'get the vote out' and once again beat the anti-trade union turnout threshold:

• click here if you need a replacement ballot (you will need your UCU membership number; this form is strictly for HE members only and not for FE members)
• click here to let us know that you have voted (again this form is strictly for HE members only)
• we need your input on next steps in the UCU Rising dispute and will be conducting an all-member consultation which will inform the decisions the union takes. Please help shape UCU's next steps to winning our dispute by taking part in one of these meetings.

Respect FE: your last chance to vote for respect

There is still just time to vote in the Respect FE ballot before it closes on Tuesday 10 October at 12 noon, so if you are in a participating branch, please dig out the paperwork, get it in the post and let us know you have voted.

Thousands of you have backed our campaign on further education pay, workload and binding national bargaining and there has been a phenomenal effort to 'get the vote out' across the union.

A strong turnout and YES vote will make all the difference to our ability to progress these urgent issues for college workers, so please give it one last push and remind your colleagues to get those votes in the post. If you need a reminder about what we are fighting for please watch and share our excellent new video here.

Ballot results will be disseminated by email on Wednesday 11 October and also published on our website. 

USS members: please complete the USS consultation

Further to the message from general secretary Jo Grady (25 September 2023), the UCU Superannuation Working Group (SWG) has produced a document to help members complete the USS consultation response. We encourage as many members as possible to get involved with this consultation:

• the USS consultation can be found here
• the SWG is encouraging members to complete the consultation quickly to get as many responses returned so please don't delay. We ask members to consider the following talking points before responding to the consultation
• we are not suggesting these be copy-and-pasted verbatim; the consultation will be more meaningful if members express their views in their own words. 

It is important to remember that implementation of these proposals will see a return to pre-2022 levels for member benefits. The SWG continues to work on augmentation/recovery of benefits lost during the period 1 April 2022 to 31 March 2024, on lower contribution rates, and on future stability mechanisms to protect members at the next valuations.

Northern Ireland further education: industrial action continues

As strike action and action short of a strike (ASOS) continue in all six colleges in Northern Ireland, UCU's campaign message is being heard and adopted by the Northern Ireland's political parties. You can read statements of support from Sinn Féin, The Alliance Party of Northern Ireland (APNI) and the Ulster Unionist Party (UUP). The Social Democratic and Labour Party (SDLP) also confirmed that it wrote to the Department for the Economy permanent secretary expressing concern for the plight of lecturer staff.

University of the Highlands and Islands: strike days announced 

UCU Scotland has announced dates for strike action at the University of the Highlands and Islands (UHI). The strike is over the university's plans to cut £4 million, including £3 million from the staff budget and making up to 44 roles redundant. UHI UCU members will take six days of strike action starting on Tuesday 17 October and escalating through to the start of November. The employer has taken no steps to prevent the strike going ahead. Politicians across the Highlands and Islands have also called for talks and consultation between the union and the university.

Teachers' Pension Scheme: McCloud Remedy

Our latest update on the Teachers' Pension Scheme (TPS) covers the changes that will be made from 1 October 2023 to all public service pension schemes including TPS in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. These changes are happening to remove the age discriminatory impact of schemes' transitional protection arrangements, often referred to as the 'McCloud Remedy'. You can click here to read the full update and view a presentation which explains the changes in greater detail.

Build the Union month: 'Me + 10'

October is Build the Union month at UCU. Local workplace organising is at the heart of what the union does, and we know that colleagues having conversations with each other about the union, current industrial disputes, and the education sectors in general have an enormous impact. 

To that end, UCU has produced guidance on 'Me + 10': the premise is that, if each of our members were to contact 10 of their colleagues to join the union, then we would build our membership and increase our leverage with employers. You can also find resources on workplace mapping and initiating recruitment conversations.

Sign the open letter to the Arts and Humanities Research Council

The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) has announced plans to cut a quarter of its annual funded PhD places by 2030, a move that will hit working class students disproportionately and limit who can afford to access academic careers. Sign this open letter to call for AHRC to reverse this damaging decision.

Calling all academic-related professional services (ARPS) staff members

There is a vacancy on the academic-related professional services (ARPS) staff committee which we are seeking to fill. If you would like to steer the union's approach to ARPS staff, then this is the role for you. The position is until the annual meeting in March 2024; to express your interest or request more information please email the committee secretary Jenny Lennox.

Count me in: LGBT+ data now

Click here to register for this UCU LGBT+ webinar where we look at issues related to LGBT+ data collection including the lack of it and how it is done, if at all! The webinar will take place on Tuesday 24 October 16:00-17:30.

Annual equality groups conference 2023

This conference is an opportunity to discuss and agree strategies to progress UCU's equality work for Black, disabled, LGBT+, migrant and women members. The conference will be held from Thursday 16 to Saturday 18 November, in person in Manchester with the option to join plenary sessions online. You can find more information and register here by Tuesday 17 October.

Nominations for 2023-24 round of UCU UK elections

Nominations are now open in the 2023-24 round of UCU UK elections. Positions include general secretary, trustee, vice president (becoming president 2026-27) and a range of national executive committee (NEC) places. Closing date 9 November 2023. Full information, including formal calling notice, is available here.