1) Annual General Meeting, Wednesday, 8th May, 13:00-14:00, Enderby Lecture Theatre, Physics
All members are invited to attend our Annual General Meeting on Wednesday next week.
The agenda and list of Branch Officer and Executive candidates was circulated on Wednesday last week. A copy can be found on the Bristol UCU website:
https://tinyurl.com/ucuAGM8thMay2019
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2) Hustings for UCU General Secretary Elections, Friday 10th May, LT3, Arts Complex, 16:30-18:00
We are very pleased to welcome the three candidates for UCU General Secretary to the University of Bristol on Friday 10th May. The candidates are:
More details about the UCU General Secretary elections can be found here:
https://www.ucu.org.uk/GS-election
Hustings will take place on Friday May 10th, 16:30-18:00, Arts Complex Lecture 3:
https://www.facebook.com/events/429570577801429/
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3) USS Pension Contributions
For members with a USS pension, you will have seen a 0.8% rise in your contribution to the scheme this month, from 8% to 8.8%. Additionally, for those who contribute to the Investment Builder part of the scheme, the 1% employer match has ceased.
The employer contribution has also risen from 18% to 19.5%.
Why these increases? Because USS has insisted on them as part of the current scheme valuation process. While UCU (and UUK institutions such as Bristol) continue to challenge this valuation, and look to prevent further contribution increases, default cost sharing provision has been introduced. While our strike action warded off the highly detrimental 100% Defined Contribution scheme proposed last year, it did not settle the cost of keeping our existing scheme.
Please note: contributions will rise significantly in October 2019 and April 2020 should current negotiations not conclude successfully.
UCU have produced a helpful ‘story so far’ for a fuller narrative [link]. In terms of next steps, the USS board met at the end of March and will meet again at the end of April to consider Bristol and other employers’ latest response.
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