Strikes will take place for three days at Essex University next month after staff voted in favour of taking industrial action over pay and pension disputes.

Lecturers and professional services staff were balloted earlier this month on whether to strike, or take industrial action short of a strike, such as a marking boycott.

Both ballots saw staff vote strongly in favour of action, with Essex being one of 58 universities in the UK set to be affected as staff go on strike over one or both of the disputes.

The strikes are largely down to disagreements over pensions and pay, but university staff say they are also fighting casualisation (such as the use of short-term or fixed-term contracts), heavy work-loads and inequality as part of their industrial action.

They are opposing Universities UK (UUK), the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), and the Universities and Colleges Employers Association (UCEA).

Professor Irene McMullin, a professor in philosophy at the university, is also the president of the Essex University and College Union committee, and emphasised that strike action was very much a last resort for staff.

She said: “We are fed up of having a pension that won’t give us a decent retirement.

“Numbers are in a position where we are going to lose up to 25 per cent of our pension, even when we are paying the same amount of money into the scheme.

“We feel sad and guilty about the effect that the strikes will have on students, but we are obliged to protect future students too.

“We are hugely encouraged by the support we have had from students.

“It is absolutely essential to us that we do not undertake this lightly and that we build and sustain a system for years to come.”

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Strike action will take place over three days, from Wednesday, December 1 to Friday, December 3.

Professor McMullin also argued that university staff are also burdened by unsustainable workloads.

“There are all kinds of problems with workloads for staff – 45 per cent of responses to a survey said it was not physically possible for them to complete the workload they are given each day.

“Staff are working 55 hours a week – it’s completely unfeasible.”

When asked about the prospect of future strikes heading into the spring of 2022, Professor McMullin said there had to be positive discussions on casualisation, workload and inequality with UUK.

“We are calling for national guidance and approaches to solving the main fights we face,” she said.

“We are also asking that the governance of the USS is submitted for review.”

An Essex University spokesman said: “We’re focusing on working together with staff to minimise the impact of any action on our students, to safeguard their educational experience and continue to support the return of staff and students to campus.

“We have made good progress on equality gaps, decasualisation and workload and are continuing to work on these issues with our workforce and unions.

“We are in discussion with the union over their plans for industrial action and we will keep our community updated about the situation and the support we will provide to staff and students.”