A busy day started with another great turnout on the picket, followed by a Q&A session in the Student Union, and then later a members meeting with guest speakers Mark Taylor-Batty and Jackie Grant from the UCU team of USS national negotiators.
The next Q&A session at the Student Union will be Tuesday 14 Feb from 11-11.30. This is a great opportunity to engage with our student community. Thank again to our students for your steadfast support, and to Adnan, Juliette, and Wolf.
The pensions dispute
In the Spring off 2020 the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) conducted a valuation at a particularly inopportune moment, just as the markets crashed, and used this to claim that to maintain our benefits in retirement contributions would need to rise substantially.
At the time both of UCU and Universities UK (UUK) recognised considerable flaws in the methodology. Unfortunately UUK, our employers’ representative body, decided to push through with cuts instead of challenging the USS valuation.
The cuts significantly affect the income which we can expect to receive in retirement from service after April 2022. It is estimated that 196,000 staff will loose between 30 and 35% of guaranteed income in retirement. This comes on top of cuts applied between 2011 and 2019 which had already reduced a typical retirement pot by £240,000. The cuts also imposed a cap on inflation protection of 2.5%. At the time of writing the Consumer Price Index (CPI) which USS use as their gauge of inflation is around 10%. This means that the future value of our pensions may be doubly impacted by these detrimental changes which were forced through by our employers.
We are demanding that our university Principals / Vice Chancellors retrospectively restore benefits to 2021 levels. The latest data suggests that the scheme is healthy and that the 2020 valuation was excessively pessimistic, and also that monitoring and governance at USS have been poor.
In the Joint Statements agreed for calling off the Assessment and Marking Boycott last summer, the senior leadership team at Heriot-Watt also agreed that the return of improved benefits to staff is a priority and that governance reform is needed.
There have been some movements but our benefits have not been restored. Bill Galvin the CEO of USS has agreed to step down and Guy Coughlan, the architect of the 2020 valuation has left. USS has so far only announced that it aims to improve benefits or reduce contributions by 1 April 2024.
This is simply not good enough, so for now we need to hold the line and keep the pressure on UUK and USS until we have a firm commitment that benefits will be restored to 2021 levels and that all future valuations are moderately prudent and evidence based.
If anyone is new to Heriot-Watt or new to picketing, or doesn’t know anyone on the picket line, please don’t be put off. Picket lines are very welcoming to everyone. Please come and introduce yourself to someone in a yellow high-vis vest and we will make you feel at home in no time.
If you are unable to attend in person please observe a virtual picket. Don’t work. Don’t engage with emails about work, other from UCU. Don’t attend meetings about work except for UCU teach-outs and members’ meetings.
The longer the picket line the shorter the dispute.
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Pink hats everywhere
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Campfire tales with Tina
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Q&A at the Student Union
Following the recent electronic consultation on the employers’ proposals it has been confirmed that there were majority votes in favour of noting the proposal in the pensions dispute and rejecting the proposal in the pay and conditions dispute.
The first day in the next wave of strike action will be Wednesday 1 February, timed to coincide with TUC day of action aimed at defending our right to strike.There will be a picket from 8-10.30 am at the main entrance to the campus.
There will be a radio phone-in style opportunity to put questions directly to the union’s national leadership before the upcoming Branch Delegate and Higher Education Committee meetings.