SUCU Branch News 19 March 2015
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Branch updates
News in brief from SUCU Committee.
USS consultation starts today 16 March
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USS consultation starts today 16 March
At the Branch Meeting last Wednesday Geraldine Egan UCU National Pension Official spoke to members about the USS consultation and changes. Read her presentation. The statutory consultation with active members of USS is due to start on 16 March. University management are distributing paperwork packs from USS to members of the scheme. The material will include links for members to provide individual responses on a dedicated USS website. It is highly recommended that members read Geraldine's slides and check our local USS webpage which will be regularly updated - collating the information, with links to further reading. The consultation period ends on 22 May. Other updates provided by Branch Officers at the meeting included:- Reward and Recognition (below).
- Members are asked to consider becoming a SUCU delegate to Sheffield Trades Council. There are some spare delegate spaces yet to be filled. Please respond to this email if you would like to learn more.
Reward & Recognition: Good Progress
We have told you about our local 'Reward and Recognition' negotiations in previous Branch News emails. We are glad to confirm that the deadlock with management over normal incremental progression has been broken and we hope to have an agreement within a few weeks which we we will be able to recommend to you. You will of course have the final say, in an eballot, on whether to accept the eventual set of proposed changes.Stand up to Racism national demo 21 March
Many organisations will be coming together on Saturday 21 March 2015 to reject racism, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism; to celebrate diversity and make migrants welcome, to demonstrate confidence in a future free of scapegoating, racism and hatred, and to remember Nelson Mandela and cherish the idea for a free and democratic society in which all persons live together in harmony and equal opportunities. More information...SUCU Branch News 5 March 2015
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Branch Meeting next Wednesday 11 March 1pm Council Chamber Octagon Centre
Our guest speaker next week will be Geraldine Egan - a pensions advice specialist from UCU. Please note Geraldine advises and assists UCU members regarding their individual pensions - separate to USS negotiations. Other items on the agenda are: USS update (read more..), anti-bullying and harassment campaign and an update on reward and recognition negotiations. Tea and coffee will be served at 12.45. Please display this poster and encourage members to attend.Pensions specialist surgery for individual members 11 March - book your appointment
Our pensions specialist will also hold a surgery after the branch meeting to give advise to individual UCU members about anything to do with pensions. 10 minute slots will be available. The surgery will be held in the SUCU office. If you're interested please reply to this message, and provide times you can be available between 2.30 and 4.30. Obviously, the more flexible you can be, the greater the chance of an appointment. We'll gauge demand from this event, and hold further sessions if necessary.International Womens' Day 8 March
Each year International Women's Day is celebrated across the globe on 8 March. It is a widely celebrated as an opportunity to draw attention to the struggle for women's rights, to link these up with women's struggles worldwide and to demonstrate international sisterly solidarity with working women everywhere. Events in Sheffield UCU postcardSUCU Branch News 26 Feb 2015
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USS: Management too should reject the restructuring
SUCU met with management recently to press management to publicly distance themselves from the UUK position on USS - UUK being the University managements' national body. The radical restructuring of USS which is proposed is damaging to all current and future staff members of USS, and also to the interests of the institution as a whole. We talked through figures from one of USS's own documents that show the £2.9bn deficit of 2011 disappearing over the three years to March 2014 only to be replaced with more pessimistic assumptions which create a £12.3bn deficit instead. Management said, quite reasonably, that an 'attractive pension scheme' is in the University's interest, and that every 1% increase in their contribution rates adds £2m annually to their overall wage bill. SUCU pointed out that if these changes go through, the highly questionable valuation methodology will, since 2011, have added £8m annually to the University's costs, arguably unnecessarily. UUK's position is inconsistent: their actuaries have not criticised the work of UCU's actuaries, but this didn't change UUK's support for the changes. There have been behind-the-scenes back-testing of previous valuations using an approach advocated by UCU, which apparently shows a much more stable fund which better matches experience; however USS's actuaries won't allow the release of these results claiming 'intellectual property rights'. We are not conspiracy theorists, but the more that one reads about this the more it looks like a stitch-up. SUCU has asked the University management to join the heavyweights of Warwick, Oxford, Cambridge, Imperial etc who have spoken out against the need for radical structural change. Imperial have gone further and commissioned an excellent report from five of their academic staff with relevant knowledge. We believe that an in depth study of all the documents and their implications reveals the necessity of rejecting the radical restructuring of USS. We urged our management to undertake this study, rather than largely relying on the word of UUK and USS.SUCU has written a summary here collating the information, with links to further reading. A dedicated webpage will soon be set up to keep member updated - so please watch this space.Free education demo in Leeds, 6 March
Regional demo for free education, organised by Leeds For Free Education. Fighting cuts, privatisation, tuition fees, for affordable housing and decent living standards for staff. Read more...Mental health prejudice still rife in the workplace says report
Prejudice against workers with mental health conditions is widespread amongUK organisations, according to a report from Bupa. Read more...Stand up to Racism national demo 21 March
Many organisations will be coming together on Saturday 21 March 2015 to reject racism, Islamophobia and anti-Semitism; to celebrate diversity and make migrants welcome, to demonstrate our confidence in a future free of scapegoating, racism and hatred, and to remember Nelson Mandela and cherish the idea for a free and democratic society in which all persons live together in harmony and equal opportunities. More information...SUCU Branch News 12 Feb 2015
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HE Special Sector Conference re USS, 24 February
As previously reported this special sector conference to debate the union's strategy to defend pensions is now going ahead, and we as a Branch are fully engaged with it. 3 delegates are being sent to represent branch views and vote on a number of proposed motions. We believe that motions 2 to 5 are in broad agreement with the sentiment expressed in branch meetings.Please vote in the NEC elections
It is sometimes difficult to tell a great deal from the candidate statements, and at the Branch General Meeting 2 weeks ago it was agreed that we should also send members advice from the two main groupings within the union:- The Independent Broad Left, which currently dominates, and supported the recent pensions strategy.
- UCULeft, which wanted more active campaigning on USS and opposed the current pensions deal.
- In addition there are a number of non-aligned candidates whose statements you can read via the elections link above.