THREE days of strikes are underway at Essex University as staff continue a long-running dispute over pay and pensions in the education sector.

Academics, support staff and administrators walked out on Tuesday in protest over the lack of a new pay offer to match inflation and the cutting of their overall pensions by up to 35 per cent.

The striking staff at Essex are a fraction of the 70,000 members of the University College Union (UCU) which will be taking industrial action across Britain until Thursday.

Dr Lorcan Whitehead, who works at the university as a learning and teaching adviser said the latest offer made by University’s UK, which represents university vice-chancellors, would see staff suffer a major pay cut.

He said: “We’re seeing movement, for sure, in terms of coming to the table and talking.

“Last year, we took action and the employers didn’t even come to the table and talk – this year, they have come to the table.

“In terms of offers, they’ve made us two on pay, both very poor – the latest would see us lose 15 per cent from our pay over the next two years in real terms, on top of the 25 per cent we’ve lost since 2009.”

He added: “We’re seeing in lots of sectors, for example energy, huge profits from the people running the companies in those sectors – that’s where the inflation is coming from.”

A further three days of strike action is expected on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday of next week, and a further four days from Monday, February 27 to Thursday, March 2 are expected after that.

There will then be a further five days of industrial action in March, though the university campus and libraries are expected to remain open.

A spokesman for Essex University said money deducted from staff pay will be going towards supporting students.

He said: “We are committed to using all of the money deducted from pay during the strike to support students and student learning outcomes.

“We also have agreed to reimburse the costs for any students who may incur unnecessary travel and/or caring costs if teaching events are cancelled as a result of this industrial action.

“We hope that the dispute will be resolved as soon as possible.”