Parliament rejects pensions change

Public service unions have made clear that they are unhappy about government proposals to change the pension age and calculation. The CGT local government federation wants to retain the right to retire at 60 and for a pension worth 75% of salary after a full career. It also called on the government to organise negotiations involving all the public service federations. FO’s civil service federation has attacked the conclusions of a report from the Pensions Advisory Council. The federation challenges some of the assumptions it has used in the Council’s forecasts, claiming that it has tried to

Representatives of the public service federations all voted in the three public sector councils to reject government proposals to raise the retirement age and pension contribution requirements. There is a national council for the each of the three sections of the public sector – ministries, hospitals and local and regional government. Some elected officials in local government supported the union position as did some employee representatives in the hospitals and so there were majorities against change in these two councils whereas voting was tied 20:20 in the council for the ministries. [Read

Key elements to the revised local government pension scheme have been laid before parliament although they won't come into effect until next year. The trade unions in the sector are pleased that the final salary pension arrangements are retained and that there will be an improved accrual rate of 1/60 per year of service compared to the current 1/80. Unmarried partners will also be entitled to benefits from the scheme. However, some matters still need to be resolved including the special provisions that allowed some workers to retire at 60 on an unreduced pension. [Read more at > UNISON (EN)-