Staffordshire University faces fourth day of strike action today

Staff have already been out on strike on:

• Monday 28 March  
• Wednesday 30 March  
• Thursday 7 April 

Staff are also taking part in action short of a strike. This includes include working strictly to contract and refusing to undertake voluntary activities.  

70% of staff who voted in the ballot voted yes to strike action. 80% of those who voted also voted yes to action short of strike.   

The strike is over management's plans to employ all new academic staff through a subsidiary company on different contractual terms to those of existing employees in the university itself. UCU said the plans are an attack of the hard won working conditions of everyone employed by the university.   

New staff employed by the subsidiary will not be able to access the defined benefit Teachers' Pension Scheme and instead will have to accept the inferior defined contribution Staffordshire University Pension Scheme. No other university has denied academic staff access to the nationally agreed scheme for the sector.     

UCU regional official Anne O'Sullivan said: 'Staff at Staffordshire University are downing tools for the fourth time today, and applicants coming to visit the university will see that it is run by a management that is intent on attacking its own staff's hard-won terms and conditions.

'No other university has removed access for staff to the national pension scheme. Colleagues doing exactly the same work should not be on different contracts. As well as facing strike action, unless the university abandons plans to create a two-tier work force, it will also struggle to attract and retain staff who will look to work elsewhere. This will lead to a devastating impact on student learning, threatening the university's future. We are seeing attacks on pensions across the sector and now employers are starting to come for the Teachers' Pension Scheme. Staff at Staffordshire will not allow this to happen.'