SAUL Pension Changes - UNISON to ballot

The University has informed us that the changes to SAUL will be implemented in July. This follows meetings of the SAUL Negotiating Committee on 19th March and then a joint meeting with the SAUL Board of Trustees on 22nd March. At this second meeting the decision to implement the changes was made following the formal consultation that ended on 9th March.

At the trade union side meeting that took place before the Negotiating Committee on 19th March, it was made clear by the Unite representatives that they had a mandate to accept the changes. A joint union statement was put to the Committee meeting that confirmed Unite’s acceptance of the changes and UNISON’s opposition to them subject to further consultation. However the Board took the decision to implement.

One concession gained was an agreement to jointly review the CARE scheme 12 months after its introduction in July.

We are now preparing for a consultative ballot of all members in institutions that have the SAUL scheme.

The ballot will be conducted by ERS and dependent upon the timetable we are able to draw up with them, will likely run from the end of April.

Further information regarding exact dates of the ballot etc. will be sent out as soon as available.

Myths about regional pay (please read, Osborne)

Here's a useful link to Public Finance who have produced information allowing all of us to challenge the myths around regional pay.

http://opinion.publicfinance.co.uk/2012/01/regional-pay-the-top-ten-myths/ 

SAUL pensions consultation - please try and respond

If you are a member of the SAUL pension scheme, you probably know that changes are being proposed to the scheme, and it’s currently in the consultation period.

Please try and respond to the consultation as the bigger the response, the more attention SAUL will have to pay to our views.

Some of the concerns Unison negotiators have raised, and which you might want to consider in your response to the consultation, include:

• The change to a CARE (career average) scheme for new entrants to the pension, as opposed to the final salary scheme that current members have. Although this will not affect current members of the scheme, the move to a two-tier system is bad news for everyone and means that anyone joining the scheme from July will have a worse pension than those already in the scheme.
  


• The change to a career average scheme will also affect anyone leaving SAUL and rejoining more than 30 months later.



• For current members who want to retire before 65, any benefits they build up after 1 July 2012 will be reduced if they retire before 65.
  


• New members of SAUL who are made redundant late in their careers will not be able to take early retirement, as if they take their pensions before age 65 they will receive a reduced pension.
  


• Increases to your SAUL pension are already linked to increases in the Consumer Prices Index, a measure of inflation generally agreed to rise more slowly than the Retail Prices Index. However, even though this change has already happened, SAUL are proposing that benefits built up from 1 July 2012 are linked to the CPI but capped. That means that if inflation were to rise to 11%, your pension entitlements would only increase by 8%.



• We are being asked to agree to changes to SAUL without having seen an independent audit of the scheme. SAUL members might want to request that an independent audit is made of the scheme by actuaries appointed by the trade unions, showing exactly what the funding situation is, before changes are proposed. This is particularly important as in the 1990s the employers took a 46-month contributions holiday where they paid nothing into the scheme, counting on the rise in investments to cover their contributions.



• Currently, due to the global financial crisis, the value of investments are at an all-time low. If there was an economic upturn, it might be that SAUL’s funding situation might improve considerably. This is another issue that an independent audit might examine.

The consultation ends at midnight on Friday 9th March. You can respond to the consultation online at
http://www.saul.org.uk/changes.html

The password can be found on page 9 of the report on the consultations procedure here: http://www.saul.org.uk/pdfs/employer_consultation.pdf

More details on the proposed changes are here: http://www.saul.org.uk/changes.html

SAUL consultation - deadline this Friday!

If you are a member of the SAUL pension scheme, you probably know that currently changes are being proposed to the scheme, and it’s in the consultation period at the moment.

Please try and respond to the consultation as the bigger the response, the more attention SAUL will have to pay to our views.

Some of the concerns Unison negotiators have raised, and which you might want to consider in your response to the consultation, include:

-          The change to a CARE (career average) scheme for new entrants to the pension, as opposed to the final salary scheme that current members have. Although this will not affect current members of the scheme, the move to a two-tier system is bad news for everyone and means that anyone joining the scheme from July will have a worse pension than those already in the scheme.

-          The change to a career average scheme will also affect anyone leaving SAUL and rejoining more than 30 months later.

-          For current members who want to retire before 65, any benefits they build up after 1 July 2012 will be reduced if they retire before 65.

-          Increases to your SAUL pension are already linked to increases in the Consumer Prices Index, a measure of inflation generally agreed to rise more slowly than the Retail Prices Index. However, even though this change has already happened, SAUL are proposing that benefits built up from 1 July 2012 are linked to the CPI but capped. That means that if inflation were to rise to 11%, your pension entitlements would only increase by 8%.

-          We are being asked to agree to changes to SAUL without having seen an independent audit of the scheme. SAUL members might want to request that an independent audit is made of the scheme by actuaries appointed by the trade unions, showing exactly what the funding situation is, before changes are proposed. This is particularly important as in the 1990s the employers took a 46-month contributions holiday where they paid nothing into the scheme, counting on the rise in investments to cover their contributions.

-          Currently, due to the global financial crisis, the value of investments are at an all-time low. If there was an economic upturn, it might be that SAUL’s funding situation might improve considerably. This is another issue that an independent audit might examine.

-          New members of SAUL who are made redundant late in their careers will not be able to take early retirement, as if they take their pensions before age 65 they will receive a reduced pension.

The consultation ends at midnight on Friday 9^th March. You can respond to the consultation online at

http://www.saul.org.uk/changes.html The password is myviews.

You can find details of the consultation procedure here: http://www.saul.org.uk/pdfs/employer_consultation.pdf and of the proposed changes here: http://www.saul.org.uk/changes.html  

Talking crap - Senate House at the UNISON HE Conference

Our delegates are back from the UNISON higher education conference in Brighton, where both Branch Secretary Josephine Grahl and BBW rep Henry Chango Lopez spoke.

'Sometimes you have to clean up an enormous pile of excrement', said Jo, referring both literally and metaphorically to the union's recognition battle at Balfour Beatty, where outsourced London university cleaners had been asked to clean up raw sewage in a hall of residence... 

Full details can be found here.

Free Spanish Classes for UNISON members

The first of our informal drop-in Spanish conversation classes took place this week, with myself (Danny) and other members taking it in turns to embarrass ourselves in front of our SOAS-student volunteer Valeria.

We'll be continuing these every Wednesday at 12.30 in the union office (ST266) and all members are welcome to attend - no experience required, and it doesn't matter if you've missed any of the previous classes.

For more information, just drop me a line at danny.millum@sas.ac.uk.

Rally to save the NHS

If you're free on Wednesday 7th March betweeen 6pm and 7.30, and would like to stand up for the NHS, you can join the TUC-organised Rally to Save the NHS. You need to register for places to join the rally at Central hall, Westminster, or you can join the 'online rally' by blogging, commenting, and tweeting about the event.

If you can, do join in the protest - our best chance to change the proposals is before the bill goes back to the House of Commons.