UCU, UUK to Move Pension Talks to Acas

New proposals pitched in Tuesday meeting.

Following four days of strikes and a two-hour meeting in London over university pensions, the University and College Union (UCU) and Universities UK (UUK) have agreed to talks at workplace arbiter Acas (Advisory, Conciliation and Arbitration Service).

The discussions will begin on Monday, March 5, but the strike will continue until Monday as well. The two-week strike will conclude on March 16, following a five-day walkout beginning March 12.

During the Tuesday debate, the union presented a series of proposals to UUK detailing what the UCU feels will end the issue with changes to the University Superannuation Scheme (USS). The changes, which took effect in January, move professors from a defined benefit plan to a defined contribution in an effort the fund’s £6 billion-£7 billion deficit—a figure the union does not agree with.

The UCU said if implemented, its plans would provide a guaranteed pension for scheme members at half the extra cost of the union’s previous proposal.

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The new proposal would see universities accepting a small amount of increased risk through a return to the proposed risk level in September, defined benefits salary limits remaining at £55,000, and a reduction in the annual accrual rate from 1/75th to 1/80th.

The proposal also will increase contributions by 4.1%, divvying it up 65/35 between employers and employees. The initial proposal estimated the cost at an 8.3% increase.

“Today, UCU tabled proposals which provide the basis for settling this damaging dispute,” UCU general secretary Sally Hunt said in a statement. “We have listened not just to our members, but also to the many university leaders who have contributed ideas.”

“At the core of our proposals is for universities to accept a small amount of increased risk, but only at a level a majority have recently said they are comfortable with. Doing this would enable us to provide a decent, guaranteed pension at a more modest cost with smaller contribution increases,” she said.

UCU also expressed interest in working with UUK to avoid future issues regarding the pension scheme. These include comparing the USS benefits to members in the Teachers’ Pension Scheme, a study of alternative ways of providing retirement benefits, a review of valuation methods, and a joint approach to government in the underwriting of the USS scheme.

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Court Orders Chappell to Pay £87,000 for Stonewalling TPR

Judge said the former BHS owner showed ‘complete lack of remorse.’

Dominic Chappell, the former owner of the now-defunct retail chain BHS (British Home Stores), has been ordered to pay more than £87,000 for failing to provide information to British pension watchdog The Pensions Regulator (TPR).

Chappell failed to give information that TPR, using powers under section 72 of the Pensions Act of 2004, had required him to supply as part of its investigation into the sale and collapse of BHS. This included information about the purchase of BHS by Retail Acquisitions Limited and the participants involved, as well as transactions involving BHS and Retail Acquisitions Limited after the sale had been completed.

Chappell was the director and majority shareholder of Retail Acquisitions Limited, which bought BHS from Sir Philip Green in 2015 for £1. He also failed to provide TPR with information about a possible unauthorized disclosure of restricted material.

Section 72 gives TPR the authority to require recipients to provide information and documents relevant to the regulator’s statutory functions. Failure to provide such information, without a reasonable excuse, is a criminal offense that can result in an unlimited fine.

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District Judge Gary Lucie of Barkingside Magistrates’ Court ordered Chappell to pay a £50,000 fine, £37,000 in costs, and a £170 victim surcharge. Chappell had pleaded not guilty to three charges of neglecting or refusing to provide information and documents without a reasonable excuse, but was convicted of all the charges after a trial in January.

“The court must send a message to those in senior positions that refusal to answer questions under section 72 will not be tolerated,” Lucie said in his ruling. “The law is there for a purpose and it must be enforced. There is a complete lack of remorse on Mr. Chappell’s part.”

The case is the fifth criminal conviction secured by TPR against individuals or organizations for failing to comply with section 72 notices.

“We prosecuted Dominic Chappell because despite numerous requests he failed to provide us with information we required in connection with our investigation into the sale and ultimate collapse of BHS,” said Nicola Parish, TPR’s executive director of frontline regulation, in a release. “Choosing not to comply with our section 72 notices has now left him with a criminal record and a bill for more than £87,000, both of which he could have avoided if he had simply done what was required of him.”

TPR has a separate anti-avoidance action against Chappell in respect of the BHS pension schemes, which is still ongoing.

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