Mae UCU wedi anfon sawl ebost yn ddiweddar er mwyn paratoi at gyfarfod o’r Pwyllgor Addysg Uwch (HEC) a gynhelir ddydd Llun nesaf. Yno y penderfynir ar y camau nesaf yn yr anghydfod.

Mae Cyfarfod o Gynrychiolwyr y Canghennau (BDM) wedi’i alw i’w gynnal bore dydd Gwener. Bydd hwn yn bwydo i benderfynu’r HEC yr wythnos nesaf. Gofynnwyd i ni ymgynghori â’n haelodau cyn y BDM.

Cewch ddarllen crynodeb o’r trafodaethau diweddar yma (bydd angen mewngofnodi i’ch cyfrif UCU i weld yr adroddiad). here (login to UCU account to access the report).

Gwiriwch eich e-byst a chwblhewch y bleidlais. check your emails and complete the poll.

The hammering of retirement benefits from the USS pension fund, imposed unnecessarily by university employers upon staff in 2022, was a major motivating factor in why so many university staff have taken industrial action.

A message from the General Secretary of UCU (below) outlines the success of that campaign of industrial action.

———————— FROM JO GRADY —————–

I am very pleased to announce that a consultation launched by the USS Trustee today shows that the scheme is on track to significantly reduce your monthly contributions and to restore your pension benefits by April 2024. This would mean a full reversal of the 35% cut that was made to your guaranteed pension benefits in 2022.

New data included in the report exceeds even the most recent predictions in May, and could see the contributions that you make to your pension lowered to 8% or less, even as little as 6.1%, once agreements between UUK and UCU about ensuring stability for future valuations have been concluded. Today I have written to the Chair of the USS Trustee Board to establish if this can be done earlier than April 2024.

UCU pressure has also meant that USS has recognised the potential to uplift benefits from the surplus in recognition of the last two lost years of benefits.

I have lost count of the times we were told this would never happen or were mocked by pensions ‘experts’ who said our campaign and our actions were pointless. And yet here we are, a step closer to delivering back your pension.

This achievement is yours. Every ballot, every picket line. Not just over the past few months, but over the past few years. We will now use the coming months to ensure the employers fulfil their obligations and we see this through to full restoration.

This is also good news for the university sector as a whole. If the employer, through UCEA, can now table a proper pay and conditions offer then we can bring much needed stability to our sector for the first time in nearly a decade. This is what’s needed. It is what students deserve and it is what staff deserve.

UCU and proud.

In solidarity

Jo Grady
UCU general secretary

Sensible and conciliatory joint statement by the University of York Vice Chancellor and the UCU York Branch executive.

Time for HE leaders to get serious in addressing for the long term the financial and working conditions problems of the UK higher education sector.

A shared perspective on pay and conditions

1) The Marking and Assessment Boycott is a national response to failures to negotiate substantive commitments to improve the working conditions and pay of Higher Education sector employees. All of them.

 

UCU calls for talks with the employers representative body (UCEA) to make progress on issues like the use of casual contracts, job insecurity, a workload that typically results in staff working extra days unpaid every week, and systemic pay gaps affecting the options and future of employees in the sector.

There have already been talks at Acas that resulted in some positive proposals put forward that were ultimately rejected by a majority of UCU members. This was partly because of the low pay offer way way way below inflation, but largely because the proposals were considered to non-committal or non-binding on employers to result in the sort of genuine and meaningful change the sector needs to return to being a vibrant and desirable place of work.

2) This weekend (26th – 29th May) UCU delegates meet for the annual National Congress in Glasgow.

As well as debates and votes on an array of issues (including industrial action and union policy) there should be a fair amount of media coverage and fringe events on issues affecting further and higher education.

You can read more about the Congress : >>> HERE   

 

3) Industrial action is not a preference and costs us personally to participate in – but it is sometimes necessary.

We want to join with other UCU members in acknowledging our collective efforts to restore pensions decimated by the employers over the past five years.

The ‘USS campaign’ run by UCU has been remarkably successful – the video below shows you why.

We have come so far in the USS dispute – and we are on course for full restoration

In this special video, former and current negotiators, UCU members and our president reflect on an incredible campaign

Please watch and share

History makers ✊#ucuTOGETHER pic.twitter.com/c8IqIAoY41

— UCU (@ucu) May 25, 2023

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