Staff at Northumbria to be balloted over pension plan dispute

Staff at Northumbria University will be balloted for strike action over plans they say would pressure employees to leave the Teachers’ Pension Scheme.

The industrial action vote opens on 15 December and closes on 23 January. The ballot follows a branch meeting last month in which University and College Union (UCU) members passed a motion of no confidence in the university executive team, including the vice-chancellor.

Management wants to move staff onto the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), a change unions argue could leave employees worse off. Staff who refuse would have their pay frozen, a measure critics say would trap them in years of real-terms cuts.

Northumbria’s leadership aims to save £11m through changes to pay and pensions. UCU said the proposals amount to an attack on long-term retirement security.

The dispute comes amid wider concern about universities such as Northumbria and Solent seeking to cut pension costs. UCU has warned that undermining established schemes risks harming morale, recruitment and retention across the sector.

A petition urging the university to rethink the plan, titled “Stop the Steal”, has been launched.

UCU general secretary Jo Grady said: “Threatening strike action is a last resort for our members but telling staff they must choose between their pay or pension is not a tenable option.

“Our members are rightly furious about this attack on their retirement security and should not be forced to pay the price for decisions made by a university management that is rushing through a process which has no place in higher education. It needs to rethink these plans and work with us, or face both serious reputational damage and disruption on campus.”