LECTURERS at a city university are embroiled in a feud with their employers over pensions.

The York and District Trades Union Council (TUC) claims staff in the University and College Union at the University of York have been threatened with having 100 per cent of their pay withheld if they carried out action short of a strike.

Leigh Wilks, president of York TUC, said: "This threat, which constitutes nothing short of union-busting behaviour on behalf of York University's management and belongs in the 19th century, certainly not the 21st, shows just how out of touch the university's management are, both with the resolve of UCU members, and with the delicate nature of work place negotiation."

The TUC said the UCU members would take a tougher stance which would make it harder to resolve the issue if they were faced with such a stance.

Mr Wilks added: "We would like to remind Vice Chancellor Lambert and his management team they are working for a collegiate institution not a multinational corporate giant, and would strongly advise them to behave in a manner which befits one of the finest collegiate institutions in the country."

A spokesman for the University of York, said: "The national negotiations over the future of the Universities Superannuation Scheme are ongoing.

"In the meantime, the University and College Union has confirmed that it has suspended all industrial action.

"The University has welcomed this move - in fact, as soon as it was announced, the University confirmed that it would not withhold pay from any member of staff, including the very small number who had already informed us they were participating in industrial action.

"In keeping with other universities, for the last five years our policy has been not to recognise 'partial performance' of duties by staff taking industrial action.

"If the industrial action is resumed at any point in 2015, the senior management will consider the circumstances prevailing at the time and inform staff in good time of its approach."