UNIVERSITY bosses and union leaders must resolve a “damaging and avoidable impasse” over pensions, universities minister Sam Gyimah has warned.
It comes as staff prepared to start strike action in the latest stage of the bitter dispute.
Members of the University and College Union (UCU) are to begin a wave of walkouts at 64 UK institutions today after backing action in a ballot over proposed changes to pensions covered by the universities superannuation scheme (USS).
On the eve of the strikes, Mr Gyimah warned a solution needs to be found for the sake of students and the reputation of higher education.
Tens of thousands of workers are expected to take part in the strikes, according to the UCU, which estimates the action will affect around 1.1 million students.
University employers have called the strike action “disappointing”.
The dispute centres on plans for the future of the USS pension scheme put forward by Universities UK (UUK).
UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said: “We welcome the call from the minister for us and UUK to get back round the table and sort this out. We have been asking for talks for weeks, while UUK was trying to spin it as a done deal.
“The minister’s voice is one of many demanding this mess gets sorted and we are happy to meet for meaningful negotiations directly with UUK or through mediation right away.”
UUK said the pension scheme’s deficit of more than £6 billion cannot be ignored, and there is a legal duty to put a credible plan in place by the summer to reduce it. A spokesman said UUK had met UCU more than 35 times in the last year to discuss reforms.
He said: “UUK remains at the negotiating table, but so far UCU has refused to engage on how best to address the funding challenges facing USS. It is important now that UCU engages on how best to ensure the long-term sustainability of the scheme.”
He added that there are scheduled discussions with UCU on key issues with the USS.
The spokesman said: “The changes proposed will make USS secure and sustainable.
University staff will still have a valuable pension scheme, with employer contributions of 18 per cent of salary, double the private sector average.”
UUK claims around 16 per cent of academic staff who are UCU members in the 64 institutions affected backed strike action.
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