The University of Bradford will be one of sixty universities to be hit with eight working days of strike action, from Monday, November 25 to Wednesday, December 4, as revealed by the University and College Union (UCU) today.

Last week, UCU members backed strike action over two legal disputes – one on pensions and one on pay and working conditions.

In a ballot over changes to pensions, 79 per cent of UCU members polled backed strike action. In the ballot on pay, equality, casualisation and workloads, 74 per cent polled backed strike action.

This follows new analysis by First Actuarial, which revealed that, because of changes made to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) since 2011, a typical member will be left £240,000 worse off upon retirement.

UCU members will also begin ‘action short of a strike’ when they return to work, involving not covering for absent colleagues and refusing to reschedule lectures lost to strike action.

Jo Grady, UCU General Secretary, said: “The first wave of strikes will hit universities later this month unless the employers start talking to us seriously about how they are going to deal with rising pension costs and declining pay and conditions.”