Category: Pensions

As from April 1st 2013 the following increases to employee pension contributions will apply.

Annual Pay Negotiations

There is still no agreement on annual pay increases for teachers. Negotiations continue.

The Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association today expressed disgust at in the middle of continuing attempts to produce a Scottish solution to the Public Sector Pension fiasco the Scottish Parliament’s Education and Culture Committee has failed to protect Scottish teachers by not opposing further increases in pension contributions. (more…)

Scotland’s two largest teaching unions, the Educational Institute of Scotland (EIS) and the Scottish Secondary Teachers’ Association (SSTA) have today been united in their condemnation of an increase in the pensions contributions paid by Scotland’s teachers. The Scottish Government has announced, today, an increase to the contribution rate for the Scottish teachers’ pension scheme. The increase, which follows on from a similar increase in 2011, will impose a further 1.2% in pension deductions from teachers’ pay, taking the contribution rate to 8.96%, on average. (more…)

The Scottish Public Pension Agency has put out a Consultation on draft regulations for proposed employee contribution increases from April 2013 for the Scottish Teachers’ Superannuation Scheme.

Members can access the Consultation and information on how to respond to it via the SPPA website.

The Consultation period is 20th December 2012 to 1st February 2013

1. Council approved the nominations of James Forbes (Midlothian) for President and Robert Macmillan (Fife) for Vice President. There being no other nominations both are duly elected for 2013-2015. Congratulations to both. (more…)

The SPPA have today issued a circular to raise awareness of a cold calling phone scam and make clear that SPPA does not cold call scheme members and pensioners.

The circular can be downloaded from the SPPA website

Colleagues,

Thank you for your support in our Work to Contract Campaign. It has been agreed by Council that it is now appropriate to suspend the campaign. This is because of the ongoing negotiation with Scottish Government aiming to effect a Scottish Solution to the pension dispute. Council felt that as a demonstration of good faith in the very real attempts by Scottish Government to provide a solution it would be appropriate to suspend our Campaign. (more…)

Why we’re marching

The STUC is organising a mass demonstration on 20th October in Glasgow. The event will coincide with a similar event in London under the banner ‘A future that works’.

On the morning of Saturday 20th October, trade unionists and community activists from across Scotland will gather for a march through Glasgow to play our part in telling the Government that enough is enough. (more…)

I would take this opportunity to remind members that the Association will participate in the STUC “A Future that Works” March in Glasgow on 20th October. This will be a further opportunity to demonstrate our determination to defend our pensions. All members are invited to join the SSTA delegation.

The proforma letter can be downloaded from the list below. The letter is available in three different formats, Microsoft Word, OpenOffice Writer and Plain Text.

MS Word Version

OpenOffice Writer

Plain text file

Link to all the past updates on the Pensions Campaign can be found here

Colleagues,

SSTA representatives were involved in pension negotiations during the summer but there remains no immediate prospect of an acceptable offer. The very real threat to our pensions continues with younger teachers bearing the largest burden of this particular attack on our conditions of service. (more…)