The University and College Union (UCU) has sent a letter to their members asking them to stand up in protest after the union was notified by the Universities Superannuation Scheme's (USS) Board telling them to attend meetings or face High Court action.
Sally Hunt, the UCU's general secretary, urged members on 5 April to write to their vice-chancellor in protest at the USS board's letter which she has called "a disgraceful attempt to bully your representatives".
Major funding cuts have brought tension to negotiations between trustees of the USS and the union, with the latter no longer attending meetings.
It has been said that these cutbacks to higher education pensions could lead to a loss of £150,000 over the course of retirement for a member currently under the age of 55.
Hunt said the letter from the USS Board was "a serious attempt to bully and intimidate the five UCU members who represent us on the USS Joint Negotiation Committee (JNC)". The letter states that the five who are part of the JNC will be personally liable for costs.
"It is absolutely outrageous that the second largest private pension scheme in the country is turning its full force on five individuals who are simply standing up for the pension rights of thousands of people in higher education," said Hunt. "The lawyers should immediately withdraw the threat to go after the five individuals financially."
The USS trustee board said in a statement last month that they had received a letter from the independent chairman of the scheme's joint negotiating committee (JNC), Sir Andrew Cubie.
Sir Andrew warned that the UCU had not attended meetings on three occasions, supposedly in a bid to block further changes to the scheme which it saw as negative for its members. The statement said that "as a result, the meetings could not transact business because they did not meet the requirements for a quorum (a minimum amount of people needed to make a decision) as set out in the scheme rules".
The UCU is afraid that the JNC will use its casting vote in favour of measures opposing the ideas of the union.
Tom Merchant, USS chief executive, said: "The normal business of USS has been disrupted by the failure of UCU representatives to attend the JNC on a number of occasions. This is intolerable to any scheme, not least a large scheme such as USS with 280,000 members and approximately 390 employers, and the board is taking steps to remedy the situation".
The USS chairman, Sir Martin Harris, urged the UCU representatives to attend future meetings so as to fulfil their duties to the scheme and would avoid the consequences which would be "costly, and unwelcome to all concerned".
The UCU says it was happy to meet with the UCEA but without the JNC. Since it has voted against the UCU once before, the union says that it does not want to take its chances.
In the letter Hunt says: "I am sorry to have to tell you that the employers and USS have now escalated the dispute with a direct attack on our representatives."
Marc Whittaker, communications officer at the Universities and Colleges Employers' Association (UCEA) said that the association was not yet in a position to formerly comment on the latest developments.
"It is foremost a matter that needs to be resolved between the USS and the UCU. We find ourselves in a Catch 22 as it were. We held our end of the bargain and attended the meetings, we just can't move further," he told Pension Funds Insider.
azeevalkink@wilmington.co.uk
First published 07.04.2011
