UK: Lecturers strike over pay and pensions

Tens of thousands of university lecturers are staging a mass walkout over their pay and pensions, writes Jessica Shepherd for the Guardian. The strike by staff at up to 500 universities and colleges comes after a wave of action over the past two weeks.

Some of the lecturers are protesting against plans to end final salary pensions for new members of their pension scheme, the Universities Superannuation Scheme. They argue that the change would create a two-tier scheme in which new academics would pay the same as their older colleagues, but have a lesser pension.

The lecturers are also striking over what they say is a growing sense of insecurity over their jobs and what has been a real-term pay cut over the last two years. Universities say academics have had a 0.4% pay rise this academic year.
Full report on the Guardian site