A trade union has blasted government proposals to allow universities and colleges in England to opt out of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) for new non-teaching staff.
Unison said the plans would be bad for staff and a ‘danger’ to the scheme itself.
Unison national secretary, Jon Richards, said: ‘Not providing a decent pension scheme for new staff could lead to a two-tier workforce, with colleagues doing the same job being provided with different pensions provision.
’Those not in the LGPS would likely end up with far inferior pension provision leading to more public service workers retiring into poverty.
’The proposals risk penalising the lowest paid, mainly female, workforce and could lead to potential discrimination and equal pay issues.’
Unison added that the future of the LGPS could be undermined if there is a significant reduction in new members.
