Higher education (HE) delegates today condemned the ongoing attack by employers, pension schemes and central government on the pensions in their sector.
They agreed that access to a decent, defined benefit pension scheme was of the ‘highest priority’ for the union – and that universities that are removing or amending these schemes are not acting in the best interests of staff or the long-term interests of the institutions themselves.
Andy Beech, vice-chair of the HE service group executive (SGE), told the conference: “In recent years, many of you will be aware that our pensions have come under sustained attack.
“Unions have fought for decent pensions for all. We all know that those of us working in higher education are not earning City of London wages. And we all know that everyone deserves to be able to retire with a decent pension that will not mean a life of poverty.
“But the significant changes that have been brought into many pension schemes have forced many members to review their plans, maybe by delaying retirement years after they had hoped to retire.”
Three years ago, the government introduced plans to enable universities and colleges to opt out of providing the local government pension scheme to university support staff. UNISON fought against these proposals and, so far, they have not been introduced.
But if they were, said Mr Beech, “it would give universities a green card to take away a decent, defined benefits pension scheme from university support staff.”
Recent years have also seen an increasing number of post-1992 universities setting up wholly owned subsidiary companies as a way of avoiding paying for their lowest-paid employees to enter into a defined benefits pension scheme.
And in other schemes, such as the universities superannuation scheme (USS) and the Dundee University pension scheme, benefits are being reduced.
Mr Beech congratulated UNISON’s branches that have been running high-profile campaigns, including strike action, to defend pensions.
“Defending pensions is about ensuring that we, and future generations, don’t retire into poverty,” he said.
“Where we have worked together and campaigned hard, we have had significant results in protecting pensions. We know that this campaign is more important than ever and the service group executive is committed to supporting you, your regions and branches to protect pensions locally and nationally.”
The conference motion on pensions asserted that the most effective way of responding to these attacks as whole, linking local pensions disputes to national disputes, and fostering networks to allow cross branch and cross region support.
Conference called on the SGE to:
- survey all universities, in order to understand what pension schemes are in place and identify where local attacks on pensions have taken place, are in progress or are threatened;
- develop an organising strategy and guidance that can be sent to branches to help argue and organise against any changes;
- develop a framework that will allow branches and regions to communicate, work together and support each other in organising against any changes;
- work with UNISON’s industrial action committee and legal office to explore creative ways with which disputes can be lodged within the law, where there might be barriers to the normal process;
- work with the UNISON pensions unit to develop factsheets to help members understand how our pensions work and why it is essential we retain access to decent pension schemes;
- work with UNISON Labour Link to campaign for manifesto commitment from the Labour Party to support defined benefit pension schemes in higher education.
