Union issues pension warning for university and college workers

Jon Richards: “The proposals could damage cash flow for a number of LGPS funds, affecting workers in local government and services far beyond further and higher education.”   UNISON is warning that government plans to allow universities and colleges in England to opt out of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) for new non-teaching staff would be bad for staff and a danger to the scheme itself. Current regulations require so-called post-1992 universities, further education colleges and sixth-form colleges to offer membership of the LGPS to all support staff. Further education and sixth form colleges, along with former polytechnics, were part of local authorities up until 1992. They became separate employers in that year, but remained as “scheduled bodies” in the pension scheme regulations, legally obliged to offer membership of the scheme to staff not on teaching contracts. Now Whitehall is consulting on plans to change those regulations and give those employers a choice to give worse pensions to new staff, arguing that they are no longer considered part of the public sector. UNISON is calling this an “unwarranted and grievous attack on the pension rights of our members”. “Not providing a decent pension scheme for new staff could lead to a two-tier workforce, with colleagues doing the same job being provided with different pensions provision,” said national secretary Jon Richards. “Those not in the LGPS would likely end up with far inferior pension...
Source: UNISON meat hygiene - Category: Food Science Authors: Tags: News colleges education services further education higher education LGPS local government local government pension scheme pensions universities Source Type: news