Aberystwyth University workers are voting on strike action over university plans to close their pension scheme and replace it with a worse one, which could see low-paid workers lose up to half their pension.
The university runs a dedicated pension scheme for staff called AUPAS. It plans to close this scheme, for both existing and new members, at the end of this financial year (31 March 2015) and leave staff with the choice of joining a new ‘defined contribution’ scheme or opting out of pensions altogether.
It would be the first action of this kind by any UK university.
The current scheme is a defined benefit scheme. All members pay into a collective fund, which then pays out pensions that depend on how long a pensioner has been paying into the scheme and how much they earned.
In a defined contribution scheme each worker has individual savings which are used to buy an annuity when they retire.
University workers and the three unions representing them – UNISON, Unite and UCU – have already rejected the planned move. All three unions are now holding formal strike ballots, with potential action likely to start on the first weekend of the new academic year, 19-22 September.
“Industrial action is always a last resort, but the university’s proposals are condemning workers to a poverty pension,” said UNISON regional organiser Simon Dunn.
“Some of the lower-paid workers are going to lose thousands of pounds a year during retirement as a result of these plans.
“Our members have clearly stated that it’s time for the university to wake up, accept the proposed cuts are too much to bear, and sit down with the unions to negotiate an alternative.”
