Hi. I'm involved at the moment in a campaign against university outsourcing -- a large number of low-grade workers are threatened with transfer to private sector contracts. Their pay is technically protected by TUPE, though naturally their hours, workplace continuity, their union representation and their pension schemes aren't. Many of those threatened expect that they'll be made redundant on 'technical' grounds so that the contractor can find cheaper replacements.
The question I wanted to ask is about pension schemes. I know basically nothing about how this works. The line friends have been advancing during the campaign is that workers will be withdrawn from the scheme and will lose whatever they've paid into it, but no-one seems to know in detail how this works (including the workers). Is anyone who has experience with this able to explain to me what the situation is (or is likely to be)?
Thanks.
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Hi, yes I think the fears around redundancies are justified.
Who has told you that the pensions are not covered?
What pension scheme are you currently in? If you are currently in some sort of occupational pension, such as a final salary one (which I would imagine University workers would be) then yes at the moment your new employer has to do either give you a comparable pension scheme, or sometimes they can let you remain in your public sector pension scheme. More info here:
http://www.pensionsadvisoryservice.org.uk/workplace-pension-schemes/final-salary-schemes/tupe
That said, the government is trying to get rid of TUPE protection for pensions at the moment, under the ironically named "fair deal", but that won't happen quickly enough to affect a current outsourcing.
With your current occupational pensions, even if you did have to leave them for some other reason (say, you were made redundant) you wouldn't lose the pension you accrued.
The money in the pot would still be there, and when you hit retirement age it would still be released. If your scheme say accrues 1/60 of your salary per year, you work at the University for five years, then made redundant, when you hit 65 you will get a pension of 5/60ths of your final salary (adjusted for inflation). Or of course you could just withdraw the money from the pot, but if it is in a final salary scheme that is not the best thing to do. Hope this helps!