Monday, December 2Royal Holloway's offical student publication, est. 1986

Tag: USS

UCU Announces 8 Day Strike Affecting 60 Universities
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UCU Announces 8 Day Strike Affecting 60 Universities

Two days ago the day this article was written the University and College Union announced eight days of strike starting this month, which will affect 60 universities across the country including Royal Holloway. The strike will take action between Monday 25th of November to Wednesday 4th of December. The action has been called in response to concerns regarding member contributions to the USS pension scheme, pay and conditions. There have been talks which could indicate the dispute could be resolved without industrial action, however this so far seems unlikely. Last week UCU members backed strike action in two separate legal disputes, one on pensions and one on pay and working conditions. Overall, 79% of UCU members voted for strike action in the ballot over changes to pensions. In the ball...
Principal Layzell Concedes to #RHOccupy’s Demands
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Principal Layzell Concedes to #RHOccupy’s Demands

Students known as #RHOccupy have now vacated the Principal’s Corridor after 5 days in position there. They made the decision to leave at 12pm today, March 20, after Chief Operating Officer (COO) David Ashton approached them with a copy of Principal Paul Layzell’s staff newsletter as well his official letter to to Alastair Jarvis, Chief Executive of Universities UK (UUK), and Sally Hunt, chair of the University and College Union. The letter to UUK and UCU called for a return to a Defined Benefit Scheme as well as supporting an indepedent evaluation of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS). These were two of #RHOccupy’s demands, along with an apology for the way staff were treated in regards to strikes and, in particular, pay deductions with action short of a strike (ASOS). All thr...
Students Occupy Principal’s Corridor
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Students Occupy Principal’s Corridor

Students occupied the Principal’s Corridor, a section of Founder’s Building, on Friday March 16 just after 12pm. They have taken up position in the corridor, just outside Principal Paul Layzell’s office and are planning to occupy until their demands are met. Their demands include: A full statement to be delivered by Paul Layzell in support of the UCU strike aims which include a defined benefit scheme and an indepedent evaluation of the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS). Paul Layzell to come out and support members of staff and students and apologise for the hard-line approach taken so far. Paul Layzell to publically back any future developments that may arise in relation to preserving the current scheme. Paul Layzell to read and take into account the letter written ...
College Accused of Planting Questions for Principal’s Staff Open Meeting to “Drown Out Questions From UCU Members”
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College Accused of Planting Questions for Principal’s Staff Open Meeting to “Drown Out Questions From UCU Members”

In an email sent to Royal Holloway line managers on Wednesday 7 March, which Orbital Magazine has seen, the College Communications team have asked for line managers to select "two trusted people" to ask a question at the Principal's next Staff Open Meeting on 12 March. The email stated: Dear [Line Manager], The next staff open meeting is on Monday afternoon at 4pm and earlier this week we changed the topic to address the pensions and the wider higher education landscape. We know we are going to receive a lot of questions from UCU representatives which Paul and the senior team will answer. As well as addressing questions about pensions we’d also like to make sure that other areas that staff have questions on are addressed. To do this we’d like to have some people in the audience prime...
Strike Action: Week One
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Strike Action: Week One

Strikes over the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) occurred yesterday (Thursday February 22) and today (Friday February 23) at universities all over the country. These two days of strike action ended the first week of a planned four weeks of strike action, called for by the Universities and College Union (UCU) as a result of lecturers and academics losing their defined contribution scheme to their pensions. Thursday’s strike saw a large turnout of lecturers from several departments that contributed to the atmosphere of the entire event. The strike leader, a designated representative of the UCU donning a high-visibility jacket and coordinating the picket line, was quick to discuss the picketing situation with security guards from RHUL. The security guards cited an official law tha...
UCU Warns of an Extension of Strike Action
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UCU Warns of an Extension of Strike Action

There are plans in motion to escalate the strikes into university exam season in April, May and June. As of February 21, there has been no resolution to the dispute between universities and the University and College Union (UCU) over the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) that would leave lecturers losing an estimated £10,000 to their pension. The General Secretary of the UCU, Sally Hunt, has warned that there is a possibility of strike action being extended if negotiations are not successful in seeking a resolution to the pension dispute. The extension of strike action would lead into exam season, with the potential to disrupt exams for all students, but with a particularly strong impact on final year students. She said that she wouldn’t “rule that off the table at this point ...