Briefing highlights risks of private pensions

A new report from the European Commission examines the growth of private pension provision and what this can mean for workers in both public and private sectors. A key trend identified by the report is the transfer of risk from governments and employers. However, the only recommendation from the Commission on this is greater financial education for workers. The report also refers to the need to ensure that pension provision is not discriminatory but recent changes can lead to lower pensions for women particularly where there are breaks in contributions. The report also warns of the costs of

(October 2016) Public service union JHL has written to local authority members across the country warning of many of the problems created by outsourcing. It quotes survey evidence indicating threats to service quality coming from cuts to jobs and working time as well as trends towards using less skilled staff. While noting that over 100 municipalities have brought services back in-house, JHL says there is still a trend towards outsourcing which, in healthcare, is now dominated by a small number of big companies.

The ZSSS trade union confederation has published a detailed article looking at the impact of outsourcing across many sectors and the initiatives taken by trade unions to prevent or end the process. The examples show the negative effects of outsourcing on pay and conditions, health and safety and union organisation and how agencies and outsourcing companies abuse employment law. Energy union, SDE, an EPSU affiliate, contributed to the overview highlighting how it was trying to reduce and restrict the impact of outsourcing in the sector. The union is particularly concerned about the increased