THOUSANDS of staff across 10 Scottish universities have begun strike action in a long-running dispute.

Picket lines have been formed as 58 universities across the UK taking similar action for the next three days.

Members of the University and College Union (UCU) Scotland voted to strike from Wednesday to Friday in a dispute about falling pay, pension cuts and "worsening working conditions".

Up to 6,000 staff at Scottish universities are taking part in the walkout.

Staff at seven universities - Glasgow, Edinburgh, St Andrews, Heriot Watt, Dundee, Stirling, and the Open University in Scotland - are on strike over both pay and pensions.

Staff at Edinburgh Napier, Glasgow School of Art and Queen Margaret University have taken action on pay only.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady has warned more industrial action could take place in the spring if the row with employers remains unresolved.

Part of the dispute revolves around the employer body Universities UK (UUK) voting to cut thousands of pounds from the retirement benefits of university staff.

Members of the UCU have expressed serious concerns about cuts to pensions with the average pension set to be cut by a third.

This came on top of multiple changes to staff pensions made between 2011 and 2019 which it is said left most staff around £240,000 worse off.

The pensions row was reignited because of what the UCU described as a "flawed valuation" of a pension scheme used by academic staff, the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS).

It said the valuation had been "carried out at the start of the pandemic, when global markets were crashing" and would lower members' guaranteed retirement income by 35%.

It is further estimated that pay for university staff has fallen by around 20% between 2009 and 2019.

Universities UK said the pensions scheme had to be kept affordable.

The move has come despite an appeal from Scottish Labour MSPs to University of Glasgow principal Anton Muscatelli to try and prevent any strike.

A letter from shadow social justice secretary Pam Duncan-Glancy and shadow employment secretary Paul Sweeney saying that the pensions dispute remained a concern.

"I am sure you will agree with us that the university's staff do incredible work," they said.

"They are conducting innovative and ground-breaking research whilst teaching and inspiring countless students. "The staff are key to why the University of Glasgow is one of the world's best universities.

"Their hard work and dedication deserve to be recognised fairly, through proper pay and pensions.

"Staff do not take strike action lightly. They want what is best for students and the university.

"They have been pushed to repeatedly take industrial action because they have been left with no other choice."

UCU said that they continued to meet with Universities UK over pension cuts, but they refused to reverse them.

The UCU said that on pay and working conditions, meanwhile, employers, represented by University and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA) still will not meet without preconditions, and refused to engage in agreeing action plans that would address widespread casualisation, excessive workloads and pay inequalities.

The group said the UCEA has also refused to move on another below inflation pay offer for staff.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: "It is deeply regrettable that staff have been forced into taking industrial action again, but sadly university bosses have shown little interest in negotiating in good faith and addressing the serious concerns of staff over falling pay, massive pension cuts, equality pay gaps and the rampant use of insecure contracts.

"The truth is that staff are asking for the bare minimum in a sector awash with money. But sadly, the only time vice chancellors seem to listen is when staff take action, and those leading our universities should not underestimate their determination to change this sector for the better.

"We are grateful to all the students who are supporting staff taking industrial action because they understand that staff working conditions are student learning conditions. Vice-chancellors now need to concentrate on asking themselves why strikes have become an annual occurrence and seek to resolve this dispute in order to avoid more needless disruption to learning. If they continue to ignore the modest demands of staff then we will be forced to take further industrial action in the new year, which even more branches will join."

Universities UK, which represents 140 institutions, said the UCU strikes over pensions were not representative of how most staff felt. It said fewer than 10% of eligible pension-scheme members actually voted in favour of strike action in this ballot.

A spokesman said: "Only one in four USS scheme members are UCU members.

"Out of 50,000 ballots mailed out, only 20,000 were cast in favour of strike action. This puts support for pensions strikes among UCU members at 40%, which accounts for less than 10% of the 203,000 active scheme members in USS.

"Nonetheless, Universities UK repeatedly offered to share alternative proposals with employers, and that offer remains. We wrote to UCU on September 7 to clarify this, but to date we have received no reply."

Raj Jethwa, of the UCEA, said pay was already at the "very limit of what is affordable" and that no univerity had indicated it would reconsider its position on pay.

He said: "UCU members need to understand that any industrial action aimed at harming students is an unrealistic attempt to try to force all 146 employers to reopen the concluded 2021-22 national pay round and improve on an outcome that is for most of these institutions already at the very limit of what is affordable."

On casual contracts and workload, he said: "We have made repeated offers of joint work in these areas for two years but UCU has rejected them. UCEA genuinely wishes to engage on these matters as far as we can at a national level, noting that they are ultimately for local negotiations."