A new deal has been offered to the University and College Union (UCU) by Universities UK (UUK).
The deal offered to the UCU, announced by the trade union today, proposes maintaining the status quo until April 2019, maintaining the same pension benefits until that point. The future of the proposed Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) pension scheme must be decided by a board made up of UUK and the UCU representatives, with equal numbers on each side, and will be ran by a jointly agreed chair. Any changes to the pension scheme will need to be agreed to by this panel.
This deal – which, it has been reported, there is optimism about – follows four weeks of industrial action by lecturers.
UCU General Secretary Sally Hunt sent a letter to the trade union’s members outlining the new deal, and said: “Of course we welcome any acceptance by UUK that the valuation should be looked at again.
“However, for any such process to have the confidence of the sector, the panel and its terms of reference must be jointly agreed between UCU and UUK, rather than imposed by one side on the other.”
UCU members will meet on Wednesday March 28 at 11am to discuss the proposed deal.
Update on #USSstrike
A new proposal from @UniversitiesUK has been sent to UCU members. Full details here – https://t.co/bzGCGwLC4e— UCU (@ucu) March 23, 2018
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