Dear Sir Christopher

USS dispute

We are writing to you, at the end of our fourth week of dispute, to ask you to take specific actions to help bring the dispute to an end, and to ameliorate the effects of the dispute on your staff.

On 13 March, the proposal mediated by ACAS was comprehensively rejected by the UCU HEC for the following reasons:

• while the proposal retained defined benefit it did so with too great a reduction in the maximum pensionable salary;
• the proposed reduction in accrual rate was unacceptable;
• the proposal still weighted risk disproportionately on scheme members.

There was also considerable concern over the CPI cap, given volatility associated with continuing uncertainty over Brexit.

Members rejected a solution to ‘the current valuation of the pension scheme’ in light of their continuing concerns about lack of the transparency surrounding this valuation, concerns which are currently the subject of unanswered public letters to Alastair Jarvis from UUK employers, including one by the Master of Churchill College, Cambridge, Prof Athene Donald.

Members were also concerned about teaching staff across universities being encouraged to reschedule teaching missed due to strike action, while also losing pay for the days they were striking, when it was by no means clear that the facility, time, or space necessary to do so would be available.

In addition, there is now mounting concern that the process by which the current valuation was achieved may conflict with The Pension Regulator’s Code of Practice, which states that ‘Trustees and employers should work together in an open and transparent manner to reach funding solutions that strike the right balance between the needs of the scheme and those of the employer’.

However, on 14 March, the Pensions Regulator stated that it would welcome any new ‘joint plan’ put to it which is ‘supported by evidence to demonstrate that it is sustainable’. UUK has now said that it is “planning more talks with UCU to end pensions dispute”, and the consultation on the proposals decided at the 23 January JNC has been suspended. We hope and believe that this opens a new opportunity for UUK to work with UCU to reach an agreed solution.

In light of these developments, we ask you to follow the example of the Vice-Chancellor of Sheffield University in publicly stating your support for recommencing ‘negotiations without preconditions’.

We also ask you to follow the example of the Vice-Chancellor of Cambridge and use your position to lobby UUK to negotiate on members’ concerns on matters such as inflation protection, accrual rate, DB cap, and the reference to the rescheduling of teaching.

We believe this is now the only way to proceed, with the pragmatism and realism that you have previously called for, in order to obtain an offer that addresses the concerns of UCU members and that achieves our shared aim of putting the scheme on a sustainable footing for the future.

Finally, we recognise that, in response to members’ protestations about this University’s initial stance on punitive deductions for working to contract (ASOS) — a policy that would have disproportionately harmed teaching-only and hourly paid staff — the University changed its position on this issue. This change of position makes a real difference to our members. We ask you now, in continued recognition of the difficult financial situation faced by our lowest paid, part-time and hourly-paid members in particular, to consider following the lead of universities such as Leicester and Loughborough in agreeing to spread strike deductions over four months or more.

We look forward to your response

Yours sincerely

Southampton UCU branch executive, on behalf of our members

Cc:      Dr Gill Rider, Chair of Council