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Bulletin 11
- Public Sector Pensions campaign
29 July 2005
Second high
level pensions meeting held
The second of
three scheduled meetings to discuss public sector pensions took place on
the 26 July 2005 under the umbrella of the Public Services Forum (PSF).
Alan Johnson Secretary of State at the DTI again chaired the meeting and
was accompanied by John Hutton also a member of the Cabinet and Public
Services Minister. Every UK government department and Scotland was
represented at senior level.
Alan Johnson
replied in more detail to the key issues raised by the unions at the
first PSF meeting held earlier in July.
His most
significant comment was to indicate his willingness to look again at the
period of protection for existing scheme members. Under the proposals
dropped just before the General Election the government was proposing to
fully implement changes to the normal pension age (NPA) for existing
members from 2013. Johnson said that they were prepared to move on this
but “only by a few years”. However he restated the government’s
commitment to an NPA of 65 for all schemes.
We reiterated our strong opposition to any compulsory increase in
the pension age.
With regard to
timetable he said he wanted to agree a number of key principles with the
unions by September 2005 that would underpin scheme specific
negotiations. He said he then expected scheme specific negotiations to
take place over the following six months. We have made it clear that all
the negotiations must be given sufficient time to reach agreements. The
issues are complex and we will not be rushed into ill thought out and
unacceptable changes to our members’ pension schemes.
Evidence
challenged
We also challenged
the Governments reasons and evidence for change.
Negotiators are
familiar with a view often expressed by employers in negotiations that
public sector workers should get more modest increases than their
private sector counterparts because their pension arrangements are
better. The government is now standing this argument on its head to
justify worsening our pensions. Our evidence strongly refutes claims
that public sector pay is comparable with pay in the private sector and
that it has risen more rapidly in recent years. We will be publishing
our detailed rebuttal shortly. Graduate pay in 2005 was 8% higher in
the private sector. And the Treasury’s other evidence on average pay
generally is meaningless as it fails to compare similar jobs.
On longevity, we
agree that life expectancy is increasing but the number of years spent
in good health is rising much more slowly. And the regional and social
class differences are stark and widening!
The evidence from
the Treasury also shows how little we spend on pensions compared to the
rest of Europe. Indeed the European Union (15) is forecasting that by
2050 an average of 13.3% of GDP will be spent on public pension
provision compared to just 4.4% in the UK.
We have asked for
more details of the Treasury’s financial estimates and we will be
putting these under greater scrutiny over the next few weeks.
The next and
arguably most crucial meeting of the PSF will be held on the 21
September.
LGPS
Preliminary
discussions on the scope of future negotiations on the Local Government
Pension Scheme (LGPS) are taking place with the Office of the Deputy
Prime Minister (ODPM). In addition to those in local government, the
LGPS covers thousands working in further and higher education, police,
probation, community and voluntary organisations, transport and
elsewhere.
We have asked
for detailed additional information on scheme funding, scheme benefits
and their distribution. The union’s negotiators are being supported with
actuarial advice and research.
We have made it
clear that any principles agreed at the PSF talks must apply to the LGPS
and Scottish LGPS. We have warned the government that we will strongly
oppose any move to treat those in the LGPS as the poor relation.
Further
information will be circulated in due course.
Keep up to date via the
website:
http://www.unison.org.uk/pensions
PROTECT OUR
PENSIONS |
