Author Archives:

USS update – Changes to your USS contributions

Posted on by

Text from branch president Ben Plumpton’s email to members If you pay into a USS pension you will have received an email today from the university’s pensions manager, informing you that your pension contribution will increase to 9.6% of your salary from 1 October 2019 until October 2021. This is up from the current 8.8% and the 8% that it was before the USS pensions dispute began. This will impact on your take-home pay, erasing any uplift from the inadequate 1.8% pay offer, and the increased contributions will do nothing to increase your projected pension. The email from USS, forwarded by the university’s pensions manager, presents this as a decision of the Joint Negotiating Committee, but in reality the JNC was firmly split on the matter and it was the chair’s casting vote that set the new situation in motion. This response to the USS’s 2018 valuation is a wholesale rejection of the proposed solutions presented by the Joint Expert Panel last year. Your union’s position remains that the employers should shoulder any additional costs of maintaining our benefits. We will be balloting for industrial action on pensions soon.  When your ballot papers arrive, we would ask you to consider … continue reading

USS pensions – negotiations outcome

Posted on by

From email to members from branch president Ben Plumpton Employers have voted (22 August) to increase our USS pension contributions from 8.8% of salary now (8% until recently) to 9.6% in October and 11% next October. They have rejected the key finding of Joint Expert Panel (which they set up with UCU) that there is no need to increase pension contributions to keep the scheme in good health. UCU has a brilliant negotiating team, chaired by our own Vicky Blake and including the great Sam Marsh from Sheffield, who worked long and tirelessly to avoid this outcome. They tried extremely hard to persuade the employers to compromise and listen to the evidence, but the employers seem determined to force staff to pay more. The ‘independent’ chair’s casting vote at the USS Joint Negotiating Committee enabled the increased contributions proposal to be pushed through. It seems that the only language employers will pay attention to is strikes. So UCU will be balloting for industrial action in September/October. A strong ‘Yes’ vote may be enough to pull the employers back to negotiating properly. I think the employers know that strikes would be effective, because apparently they tried to get UCU to agree … continue reading

Please tell UCU if you’re on long-term leave for November to May

Posted on by

For legal reasons UCU isn’t allowed to ballot members over strike action who wouldn’t normally be working during for the potential period of action (roughly November to May – let us know if you need an exact date). If you’ll be on maternity/paternity/parental leave or sick leave, or for some other reason won’t be working for the University of Leeds for that whole period please email ucu@leeds.ac.uk with the details. Research/study ‘leave’ isn’t normally leave for these purposes (it’s leave from certain duties, not leave from work), if you’re being paid by the university and doing that research as an employee of the University of Leeds. Email us if you’re not sure if this affects you. … continue reading

Are you leaving the University of Leeds before the end of October?

Posted on by

If you know you’ll have left the University of Leeds before the end of the strike ballot, 30 October, please email ucu@leeds.ac.uk to let us know. It’s important, both legally and for union democracy, that you aren’t balloted here if you won’t be here. When you move to your new institution please update your UCU details using My UCU (top of the page at ucu.org.uk). If you update your employer details before 19 August you’ll be balloted in your new branch automatically. If you update your details 19 August or later you’ll miss the initial ballot distribution so as soon as possible after 17 September log in to My UCU and request a ‘replacement’ ballot pack. … continue reading

Thank you – and introducing our new Leeds UCU president!

Posted on by

Email sent to all members from Vicky Blake, 1 August 2019 Vicky Blake Dear Members,  I am writing to say thank you for having me!  Thank you for electing me as president of Leeds UCU for the past two years, and thank you for your incredible commitment, energy, ideas, skills, and dedication to making this university a better place to work, and a site of real community. It has been challenging, inspiring, and exciting to undertake this role, and such an enormous privilege to represent Leeds members. I have really valued the constructive honesty in feedback members have offered throughout my time in the role, and am so proud of how much we have achieved together as a branch. We have so much more to fight for still.  Please keep an eye out for announcements about a general meeting connected to the 2 hugely important UK-wide ballots we are running over USS pensions, and over the JNCHES pay and equality claim in September and October. A confirmed date for your diaries is 2 October, 1-2pm, when our new General Secretary Jo Grady is coming to speak to members (see [here]) and to meet with our anti-casualisation working group.  UCU was a lifeline for me when I joined as a casualised postgraduate … continue reading