Misleading Newsnight story on Universities Pension Scheme

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BBC Newsnight carried a  story on October 24 presenting the USS pension scheme as having a ‘black hole’ that will need to be filled by increased student fees.

Denis Leech, Professor of Economics at the University of Warwick, has written a response to this on his blog: Misleading Newsnight story on Universities Pension Scheme.

He has also written a letter to the Times Higher Newspaper, Accounting Tricks and Pension Deficits. A full version is available at Universities’ Pensions Deficit is not Believable.

UCU, UNISON and Unite members to take strike action on 31 October

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A day of strike action has been called for 31 October 2013 in support of our claim for a decent pay increase and to respectfully ask you to support the strike.

The members of all three unions – UCU, Unite and Unison will be taking part in this strike and we hope it sends a powerful message to the employers.

With four years of pay cuts hitting the living standards of everyone in our sector and the university employers sitting on an amassed surplus of more than £1.1 billion, it’s not surprising that members in higher education are angry. The position of higher education staff has also made the mainstream press, with Sunday’s Observer carrying an article from Will Hutton describing our four year pay cut as the ‘most sustained cut in wages suffered by any profession since the Second World War’.

This is an unnecessary dispute. We know that your employers can afford a better pay offer than 1%. I hope that our action will bring them back to the table, but until that happens we have to be ready to take action.

Following the one-day, united strike, UCU members will begin working to contract and we will be sending out more details about this very soon. In the meantime, I’d ask you to support this sector-wide united strike.

Yours

Michael MacNeil
UCU Head of Higher Education
HE Pay Dispute 2013 – Fair Pay in HE

You can follow UCU on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ucu where you will get regular updates throughout the dispute.

Income tax relief on your UCU subscription

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A reminder to check your UCU membership record to ensure that you are paying the correct subscription rates, as failure to do so may disqualify you from receiving legal advice and other benefits from UCU.

UCU members can claim 67% tax relief on the total annual subscription they have paid to UCU – up to the last four years. Subscriptions start on 1st Sept each year so please consider this carefully when making your calculations. HMRC has issued the following advice to the union:

‘Approval is granted on the basis that tax relief is restricted to 67% of the total annual subscription. Please ensure that members are aware that the figure to be shown on their tax return is the allowable figure equal to the 67% of the total annual subscription.’

Further information, including a UCU tax reckoner, worked example and tax relief claim form can be found here.

Survey finds widespread dissatisfaction amongst university staff with research assessment

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The majority of university staff are unhappy with the method used to assess the research done in UK higher education institutions, and would like to see it reformed, according to a survey published by UCU today.

Nearly two-thirds of the survey's 7,000 respondents said they thought the Research Excellence Framework (REF) has a detrimental impact on the sector, and believed it creates unreasonable expectations of research outputs. More than half said they would like to see the REF replaced by an alternative method.

Two-fifths (42%) of respondents did not view the selection process for the REF at their institution as transparent and one in five (22%) feared they would be moved to a teaching only role if they did not meet their institution's REF expectations.

Full report – The Research Excellence Framework (REF) UCU Survey Report Oct 13

A sumary is available at http://www.ucu.org.uk/6776

UCU members reception Wednesday 25th September, 16.00 – 17.00 Anderson Room (Library Top Floor)

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You are warmly invited to attend a UCU members reception, tea, coffee and cakes will be provided and it will be a chance to take a breath and catch up with colleagues.

The recent consultative ballot on pay indicated a clear majority for rejecting the pay offer of 1% and a majority for both action short of a strike and strike action.  The upshot of this is a statutory ballot where you will be asked to cast your vote again to either accept or reject the pay offer and the industrial action you would be willing to take.  Mary Senior (Scottish Official) will attend the reception and discuss the background to the pay negotiations, what your vote will mean and answer any questions you might have.

The ‘full and final’ offer on pay is for an increase across all pay points of 1%. Set against current RPI of 3.1%, the employers are offering real-terms pay cut for the fourth year in succession and are, once again, refusing to negotiate at a national level on a range of issues in respect of UCU equality policy.

There will also be an update on the proposed changes to academic titles.

Details of the reception are below.  For catering purposes please email  (c.m.ure@hw.ac.uk) if you would like to attend.