Susie Morgan updates us on pay and pension developments

Pensions 

In March we held an all staff briefing for colleagues to learn more about the 2020 valuation of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) pension scheme. Andrew Keeble (Director of Director of Finance, Planning and Data Insight), and I provided background information on two consultations about the future of the scheme. If you missed the event, you can watch it here. 

There is a planned rise in contributions from October 2021 which will see members contribution go up to 11%, while employers will pay 23.7%.   

From now until mid-May, Universities UK are consulting with employers to gain a clear mandate for their future negotiations with USS on behalf of Universities.   

Key questions for employers will include areas such as contribution levels, affordable benefit structures and covenant support measures; each option has differing flexibilities and financial implications.

There will be an employer consultation with affected members on any proposed changes, we expect this to begin in September  for 60 days.  Once the consultation is open, we will invite you to share your views on the proposals. 

Any further change to contributions or benefits resulting from this consultation is not expected before 2022.  

Pay negotiations  

Our annual round of pay negotiations is now underway.  

The first stage, at the end of March, saw employers and five Higher Education Unions (EIS, GMB, UCU, Unison and Unite) make their initial positions clear and begin discussions. 

Full details are publicly available from the UCEA website. Headlines from the trade unions' claim include:  

• a pay uplift of £2,500 on all pay points with a minimum of £10 per hour wage for all contract types; 
• for all universities to become Living Wage Foundation accredited employers; 
• a maximum sector wide pay ratio of 10:1 which is not limited to the national pay spine; and additional uplift at the lower end of the pay spine to address pay compression.    

An opening pay offer was put forward by the employers in response at the end of the meeting and discussions will continue at the second meeting in April.

Updates 

We'll publish updates at each stage of the negotiations on our Staff Directory. The next meeting to discuss the outcome will be on 6 May 2021.