News Focus - Pensions
WORKERS, NOV 2005 ISSUE
Public sector unions are breathing a sigh of relief after a deal with the government over pensions. But does it all add up? Or have they become party to a new pensions scandal?
Phoney war, real disgrace
The battle over public-sector pensions is not over yet, whatever victories may be trumpeted following the latest agreement between unions and government. In fact, the battle has yet to start. All we have seen so far is posturing, designed not to preserve decent pensions but to save the blushes of a Labour government that knows no shame anyway. ...[more]Pensions - Divide and rule
Public sector workers in health, teaching and the civil service will be breathing a sigh of relief, quite prematurely, that they are out of the immediate firing line over pensions following an agreement reached by the trade unions and government on 18 October 2005. The agreement promises lifelong protection for existing pension scheme members. It will open up the schemes for specific negotiations which may or may not improve matters. And it will generate a two-tier pension scheme for new entrants, who can only catch up if they pay more contributions and work longer but will probably exacerbate the non-participation in pension schemes by new young low-paid workers. ...[more]
Pensions ...and it all began in Brussels
When were the battle lines over occupational pensions drawn? Three years ago, with the European Directive on Occupational Pensions. That was followed by the Pensions Act 2004, a laudable act that introduced the Pensions Protection Levy and thus led the unions into believing it was about protecting workers whose pension schemes had been looted by private companies. ...[more]Anatomy of a theft
The attempt to divide workers in the public sector by worsening the pension terms and conditions of new entrants seeks to undermine the collective bargaining principle that workers doing the same job should receive the same rate of pay and accrue the same rate of pension. It is true the government would like to have gone further than force workers into accepting different retirement ages depending on when first employed, but let us not pretend that this is the end of their attack: there is more to come. As regularly outlined in Workers, pensions have been continually undermined. For example, prior to the spurious longevity arguments, the government were already pushing women's retirement age back to 65 under the guise of equalisation with men. ...[more]
