U.K.
Engineers at British Gas, members of the GMB general union, are due to take their first day of strike action on 12 December in protest at the company's plans to close the final-salary pension scheme. The workers are angry about the company's decision in the light of a review of the pension scheme two years ago when many workers backed higher pension contributions in order to keep the scheme open.
Read more at > GMB
The CGT, FO and FSU public service federations have rejected government proposals to cut pension entitlement for public sector workers. The workers affected are public employees who don’t have civil service status and who are covered by the IRCANTEC pension scheme. The government wants to reduce the IRCANTEC pension in terms of the level of salary it replaces from 75% to 67.3%. The unions argue that it is possible to maintain the replacement rate at 75% particularly if the government increases the employers’ contribution which is currently much lower than it is for civil servants who are
Public sector unions have negotiated a new public sector-wide pension scheme that they are recommending to members who will vote on whether or not to accept the new arrangements. The scheme will be introduced from 2020 for all workers born in 1963 or later. The unions are pleased with the result which they say produces a gender-neutral scheme and will see members earning pension entitlement on all their earnings from day one of employment. There will also be early retirement provisions for those who need it.
Planned strike action by public sector workers was called off when negotiations were finally concluded at 5am on 4 June. Unions were pleased with the outcome as it means that there are no major changes to the pensions arrangements in the public sector. Pay negotiations were also concluded with local government workers set to get 3.1% with a minimum increase of 9000 NOK a year. [Read more at > Fagforbundet (NO)-> http://www.frifagbevegelse.no/fagbladet/article4374683.ece] [And at > NTL (NO)-> http://www.ntl.no/portal/page/portal/PG_NTL_NO/ALLE_2008/Artikkelside?p_d_i=-1&p_d_c=&p_d_v=11832&p_d_i
