USS and National Pay Bargaining update

Thursday, 03 May 2018

There have been further developments in respect of ongoing discussions regarding the future of the USS and in the national pay bargaining process.

USS

The USS JNC has now formally revoked its proposal of 23 January 2018 to allow for the UUK and UCU to establish a Joint Expert Panel (JEP) to review the basis of the scheme valuation. The JEP’s terms of reference have now been agreed. The membership is yet to be confirmed; I will provide this information as soon as it is available.

The USS Trustee has already confirmed its willingness to engage with the JEP. However, it has also issued a reminder of its statutory obligations following the USS valuation to report acceptable arrangements to the Pensions Regulator by 30 June 2018. With this in mind, the Trustee has stated that it will move, in parallel with the work to be carried out by the JEP, to trigger scheme rule 76.4 under which contributions would be imposed on scheme members and employers to meet the costs of benefits from 1 April 2019.

Under rule 76.4 the employer costs would rise by 6.11% (to 24.11%) and 3.29% (to 11.29%) for members; for the University this would represent an additional annual cost of £7.8m.

There is clearly much more work to follow and I will provide updated information as regularly as possible.

National Pay Bargaining

I reported previously on the opening of this year’s national pay bargaining process. The JNCHES met again on 13 April 2018 during which the employers’ representative UCEA confirmed that any pay award agreed this year would at least match last year’s outcome, i.e. a baseline 1.7% increase and a higher pay uplift for the lower paid.

The JNCHES meets again on 10 May for the last of its three scheduled meetings. I will provide a further update following that meeting.

John Brady

Director of Human Resources