Unionised University of Dundee workers have entered their second week of strike action over what they say is a planned cut to their retirement funds.
Clerical staff represented by Unite walked out last week in protest at changes to their pensions, which will see workers on lower pay grades move from a defined benefit plan to a defined contribution plan managed by the university itself.
Unite says this could see non-academic workers lose up to 50% of their expected pension - somewhere in the region of £150,000.
Higher-grade workers - including all lecturing staff - will have their defined benefit pensions protected by the UK-wide Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS).
While it is also the subject of dispute among lecturers over controversial reforms, workers in the nationwide USS programme are guaranteed a certain income when they retire.
If the university pushes its defined contribution proposals through, this will not be the case for non-academic staff.
Unite says that as well as targeting lower-paid staff, the plan discriminates against the university's female workers, whom it is estimated make up 70% of the clerical staff on Unite's books.
Susan Robertson, Unite industrial officer, said strike action had been prompted as the university seemed "hell-bent on proceeding" with the new pension scheme.
She said: "The proposals on the table will plunge workers into pension poverty and require them to work longer.
"Dundee is already a city with widespread deprivation.
"The University of Dundee prides itself on being the place to study. It should pride itself on being the place to work as well."
Union sources said the second week of action was "unheard of for the university", but had been necessitated by the lack of engagement by institution bosses.
Members of Unison - which represents hundreds of clerical and security staff at Dundee - have also walked out in the past month, as have a small number of staff affiliated with the Universities and Colleges Union (UCU).
The strikers have been backed by local councillors, who agreed a motion of solidarity at a committee meeting last week, as well as MSPs, including North East MSP Mercedes Villalba.
Posting images of a visit to the picket line on Twitter, the Labour member said: "The proposed pension cuts at the university will disproportionately affect low paid women and that’s why it’s so important that we stand in solidarity with our sisters."
The source of the dispute is a change from what is known as a defined benefit pension to a defined contribution pension.
The former guarantees a worker a fixed pension amount regardless of how much they pay in, while the latter puts more emphasis on workers setting aside enough pay to fund their retirement.
The university says that the defined benefit pension has become too expensive to maintain. The most recent audit of the scheme found it was £44.9 million short of where it needed to be to pay out to members.
Dundee University bosses say they have tried to discuss alternative pension arrangements with shop stewards - including trying to incorporate an element of defined benefit into the new scheme - to no avail.
A spokesperson for the further education institution said: "We held constructive discussions with the campus unions at the end of last week and our hope is we can continue to make progress through talks in the coming days."
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