UNISON - Fighting for decent pensions
There's been a lot of activity on pensions since the industrial action on 30 November forced ministers back to the negotiating table in earnest.
From December into March, negotiations have been taking place on the NHS Pension Scheme and the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS), affecting most of our members.
And now we are getting close to having enough details to consult members, who we have always said will have the decisive say on any proposals.
In the NHS, members have voted on final proposals from the government for pensions in England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
This saw a low turnout of 14.8% of those eligible to vote. Of that 14.8% the result was close with 50.4% voting to reject and 49.5% to accept.
"The low turnout coupled with the close vote shows there is no mandate to endorse the pensions proposals, but equally no mandate to take further industrial action," says head of health Christina McAnea.
"We need to consider the next steps in the pensions campaign and we will be talking to the other health unions."
In Scotland, the union balloted for, and started, separate industrial action over the 2012 contribution increases.
Pensions are a devolved matter in Scotland and ministers have agreed to talks, starting on 28 March, over medium and long-term changes to the NHS Pension Scheme, but refused to discuss this year's changes.
In December, ministers agreed a timetable and framework for talks on a future local government pension scheme for England, Wales and Northern Ireland drawn up by the unions and local government employers.
In Scotland, where pensions are a devolved matter and there is a separate Scottish LGPS, there have been no proposals to alter the scheme or increase contributions.
South of the border, after the strike, local government secretary Eric Pickles withdrew plans for higher contribution benefits and a worse accrual rate from this April.
This has allowed talks to take place between the unions and employers, on the basis of no changes at all until 2014, after the next scheme evaluation.
Unions are negotiating on the basis of trying to avoid any contribution increase at all – or at the least for most members.
The local government unions and employers are waiting on government approval of joint proposals on the 'big ticket' items, including:
- the type of scheme;
- the accrual rate;
- the revaluation rate;
- your contributions;
- the pension age;
- protection.
The new LGPS from 2014 is likely to be a career average (revalued earnings) scheme.
The talks are being overseen by an LGPS scrutiny group, chaired by NEC member Jane Carolan, who chairs the union's service group liaison committee.
This group includes chairs and vice chairs of the service group executives whose members are in the LGPS, or their nominees:
- local government – Jonathan Sedgebeer and Carole Maleham;
- police and justice – Caryl Nobbs and Chris Hanrahan;
- higher education – Denise Ward and Andrew Beach;
- community – Stephen Brown and Mary Powell;
- water, energy and transport – Ruth Davies and Pam Sian.
They are joined by a negotiating team of vice president Chris Tansley, national secretary for local government, police and justice Heather Wakefield and head of pensions Glyn Jenkins.
