UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis today
welcomed the deal on pensions for health
workers, the civil service and teachers that
guarantees lifetime protection for all current
employees for their existing pension provision.*
He said:
" We welcome this deal. The Government has
honoured its pensions contract with the nation's
health workers. They will have
lifetime protection of their existing pensions
provision, including their retirement age.
"We will get into talks to negotiate new schemes
for new entrants which will be index linked
defined benefit schemes, with no central
direction over the type of scheme. There
will also be provision in those new schemes for
people to pay a more into the scheme over a
lifetime of work to retire at 60 if they so
wish.**
"This is one part of the jigsaw, however, and we
want the principles established here to be
applied to the local government scheme.
These principles have been endorsed by the
Cabinet. It is important that the promise
made to teachers, health workers and civil
servants applies also to the more than 1.3
million local government workers.
"We are confident that the Deputy Prime Minister
will want to play fair by the local government
workforce."
Ends
Paragraphs in the deal:
*A principle underlying this agreement is that
existing scheme members will have the right to
suffer no detriment in terms of their normal
pension age and will retain their existing
pension provision unless individual or
collective agreements within sector specific
negotiations are reached which allow changes to
those provisions or transition to new schemes.
**… 65 will be the reference age for new
entrants to the new schemes entering employment
after the implementation date. But not all
new members will want to work longer, and all
new scheme members will continue to have the
right to retire at age 60. All new
scheme members who under the new arrangements
would reteire on a lower pension than they would
under existing rules will be offered the
opportunity to increase contributions so members
can continue to retire on a full pension at age
60. Those who wish to continue to work to
the new normal pension age will be able to do so
at the standard contribution rate.
