A professor who is taking UK higher education’s largest pension scheme to an employment tribunal has accused the organisation of “groupthink” after it “ignored” her concerns about the validity of a valuation.
At the start of her much-delayed tribunal on 17 May, Jane Hutton said months of her concerns being rebuffed forced her to become a whistleblower and disclose information to outside sources, for which she was eventually removed from her post as director for the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) in 2019.
During the hearing, she faced questions over whether she had refused to engage with different viewpoints as she “dogmatically” pursued her interpretation that the size of the scheme’s deficit in 2017 had been overestimated due to assumptions made during the valuation.
The University of Warwick statistician – who served as a non-executive director for USS from 2015 until 2019 after being nominated by the University and College Union – claimed she was “unlawfully removed from office by reason of my making protected disclosures”, which, she said, had an “enormous effect on my professional life and physical health”.
USS said as a director she was duty bound to confidentiality and its whistleblowing policies don’t apply, while her claims about the valuation were thoroughly investigated and the processes were found to be robust.
In a witness statement submitted to the tribunal, Professor Hutton said she had become concerned about the accuracy of the 2017 valuation –...
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