‘No regrets’ as USS set to reverse pension cuts and payment hikes

So years of industrial action causing massive disruption to students and financial pain to staff were all pointless and UUK can't even manage an apology? Either someone somewhere made some huge mistakes or there is a serious structural problem with the way DB pensions are regulated to allow this kind of volatility. I'd like to see some accountability but won't be holding my breath.

This is like having a stolen bike returned - it isn't a great cause for celebration.

“Given regulations on valuations, I don’t think we had any choice but to call a valuation for March 2020, and a year further on things looked no better. I don’t think there was any alternative to making the changes that happened. I don’t look back at that and think it was a mistake." I beg to differ. There was no requirement within the regulation to conduct a 2020 valuation, since the previous full valuation occurred in 2018 (and the requirement is for them to happen triennially). Further, there were other ways to deal with the outcome from the flawed valuation than to make the cuts favoured by employers, but the negotiation process was skewed heavily in favour of the employers by what I consider to be a misapplication of the scheme rules by USS. There were multiple mistakes here by USS, and it's a shame they're not yet in the position to admit them. More time needed, perhaps.

USS made a botch of things, but apparently are not willing to admit to it. Might affect their cozy bonuses... And speaking of coziness, "A consultation has now been opened, allowing the scheme’s 331 participating employers to respond to the proposals" - when, pray, will WE be consulted before changes are made?

Why is this historic victory for university staff not reported in the press more widely? Even among the staff we do not know its happened? Going on strike was really hard and we fought hard for this. So - is the above article the way we get to find out we won? I have to say - I would certainly have regrets looking back at the past few years if I were on the employers side. Its really difficult to see that people would have no regrets. A silly article with no context or facts.