STAFF at 12 Scottish universities are to go on strike for eight days amid a row over pensions, and pay and working conditions.

University and College Union (UCU) members will begin action on Monday after no agreement was reached with academic institution representatives.

The disputes centre on changes to the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), with the union claiming there has been a failure to make improvements on pay, equality, casualisation and workloads.

Mary Senior, UCU’s Scotland official, said: “Strike action is always the last resort but universities’ refusal to deal with the key issues of increased pension costs, pay and working conditions leave no alternative. It is unbelievable that universities have not done more to work with us to try and find a way to resolve these disputes

“We’re asking students to call on university principals to get their representatives back to negotiating table for serious talks.”

The Scottish members will be joining those from another 48 universities across the rest of the UK.

Across Scotland, 78% of UCU members polled voted for strikes over changes to USS pensions and 73% backed strikes over pay and conditions. After eight strike days starting on Monday, union members will then begin action short of a strike, also known as a work-to-rule.

This involves steps such as working strictly to contract, not covering for absent colleagues and refusing to reschedule lectures lost to strikes.

There will be a rally on Monday at 1pm in Bristo Square, Edinburgh.

A USS spokesman said: “We recognise the difficulties in levying higher contributions but USS, along with all similar pension schemes, faces a challenging environment in which the costs of funding high-quality defined benefits have increased dramatically.

“We are in no doubt that higher contributions are required to ensure the valuable promises our employer and member representatives are making can be kept.”

Carol Costello, speaking on behalf of employers, said: “Many USS employers and scheme members want to see changes to the USS valuation methodology and scheme governance ahead of the next valuation in 2020.

“Under pensions law, the scheme needs more money to keep benefits at the same level – which has always been a key demand of the UCU.

“Many institutions will not be able to afford a higher share of the contributions and the costs and risks of this scheme are shared equally by all.”

She added: “We will continue to talk with the UCU, as we have done over the last 18 months, on a joint and fair solution to this pensions dispute.”

The universities affected are Heriot-Watt, Aberdeen, Dundee, Stirling, Edinburgh, Glasgow, St Andrews, Strathclyde; Glasgow Caledonian, Glasgow School of Art, Queen Margaret University, and the Scottish Association for Marine Science.