Magee College lecturers out on strike over threat to slash pensions by 35 per cent

Lecturers at Magee College have staged a strike today over pensions, gender pay inequality and increased workloads.

The academics, along with their fellow colleagues at the Coleraine, Belfast and Jordanstown campuses that make up Ulster University, have joined lecturers from 68 other universities – including Queen's University in Belfast – across the United Kingdom in taking industrial action.

This walkout is the first of a nationwide series of strikes scheduled until the beginning of next month following a ballot of University & College Union members who also voted for a work to rule mandate.

Dr Adrian Grant, who is a historian and a Politics Lecturer, stated that him and his colleagues had voted to walk out after hearing that their pensions upon retirement would be slashed by 35 per cent.

“There are two separate official disputes,” says Dr Grant. “The first is on the issue of pensions where the university lecturer's pension is significantly cut upon retirement.

“The other dispute surrounds workloads, gender pay equality and casualisation of the workforce within higher education.

“Zero hours contracts and insecure work has become a major, major problem. You could be working in a university for ten years and be in the situation of no job security whatsoever.

“That is one of the big issues we're fighting on. Without job security, people can't get mortgages, can't get loans and they can't plan for the future either – not more than six months because they don't know if they'll still be in work after that.

“There are negotiations – on a national level – currently ongoing on the pensions issue and the union are pushing for proper negotiations on the others.

^{Dr Adrian Grant, Politics lecturer at Ulster University}

“Your typical staff member, regarding their pension, is facing a thirty-five per cent cut on their retirement income. Depending on what a particular staff member's income is, you could be talking hundreds or thousands of pounds for a retirement cut.

“That's what we're fighting against because the UCU position is that this cut is not necessary.

“The valuation of the pension was carried out back in March 2020 – and you'll remember what happened in March 2020 (Covid-19 pandemic). The stock market collapsed globally so the pension has been valued from when the stock market was at its bottom.

“We're saying this cut isn't necessary and recognise that there's issues that need to be negotiated on that they (the universities) need to be paying a little more attention on.

Dr Grant also stated that due to staff numbers being drastically cut back over the last 10 years, lecturers – expected to cover for colleagues that were let go – had seen their workload increase by a considerable margin.

He added: “The typical academic workload has expanded so rapidly in the last couple of decades. Academics tend to work sixty-hour weeks on average with teaching, getting marking done, doing research and doing a lot of community work.

“Academics are working way more than a typical working week would be due to the pressures of work across the board.

“That's because of major cutbacks. Staff numbers have been cutback significantly in the last ten years with the work being spread around a smaller number of people.

“The increased workload has just, because of all of the cutbacks, become unsustainable for the people who have remained.”

As for the mood of the picket line itself, Dr Grant said that him and his colleagues were encouraged by the level of support shown by others.

He continued: “Apart from being cold and wet, it's been encouraging to see the levels of support we're getting.

“There's people in cars tooting their car horns in support, there have been people from other trade unions wishing us well and some of the students here as well supporting the strike. So it's been a good turnout so far.”

As mentioned earlier, while selected days for strike action have been scheduled, a work to rule will be in place across Ulster University and other universities in the UK.

The chief-executive of the Universities and Colleges Employers’ Association (UCEA), Raj Jethwa, said last week that universities should withhold full pay for what it describes as “partial performance of duties”.

He said: “(Universities) are not only entitled (to withhold full pay), we think they are compelled do so. The legal position is pretty robust, but beyond that we think the moral position of employers is robust as well.”

The Derry News contacted Ulster University to ask if they would enforce Mr Jethwa's recommendations and also to address the issues of staff workloads and the proposed cut in pensions.

While the University did not comment on whether or not they would apply Mr Jethwa's advice of withholding of full pay for lecturers working to rule, or lecturer workloads, they did respond regarding the issue of pensions.

An Ulster University spokesperson said: “Whilst we had hoped that this national dispute could be resolved without industrial action, preparations have been made to minimise potential disruption on our campuses. Everything possible is being done to safeguard both the student and staff experience.

“We value all our staff and want everyone to have a market leading and secure pension in retirement. The Universities Superannuation Scheme pension continues to be one of the UK’s best pension schemes and the reform proposal represents a fair and sustainable outcome for all members of the scheme.”