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Arena Magazine Issue 04 |
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Pensions high on Government’s agenda
By Sir Bill Connor, General Secretary
In response to the growing crisis in pension provision, and as more and more companies move away from final salary schemes, the Government has set up an Employer Task Force on Pensions.
The remit of the committee is to promote best practice, and encourage employers to maintain their final salary schemes and introduce new schemes wherever possible.
I have been appointed to this committee by Andrew Smith, Secretary of State, to provide a trade union insight. The first meeting of the committee took place on 14 July, and we were given an overview of the state of pension provision in the UK to provide a background to our work.
There is no doubt that we face a major challenge in the coming years in our objective to ensure all workers have access to a decent retirement income. The scale of the problem indicates, quite clearly, that it is beyond the capacity of the Government, employers or individual workers to solve on their own. We need a partnership of all parties concerned. It is the policy of Usdaw and the TUC that the Government should place a statutory obligation on employers to make a contribution to pension schemes in the region of at least 10 per cent.
Where pension schemes are established, then employers should be able to re-introduce membership as a condition of employment. As a proper safeguard, only schemes which provide basic minimum standards, set by the Government, should be allowed to operate a condition of employment clause.
The committee is due to deliver its report within a timescale of 18 months. The committee will be assisted by a separate advisory group of pension experts, and we will be ensuring that the trade union input highlights the concerns of trade union members.
The petition of 100,000 signatures presented to 10 Downing Street, by John Hannett, Deputy General Secretary, as part of our Freedom From Fear campaign, is a testament to the enthusiasm our activists and members have shown to this important campaign.
This campaign, which grows in influence day by day, has further established Usdaw as Britain's premier retail union and should attract many thousands of unorganised workers into our ranks. National Respect Day on September 17, with the many divisional activities planned to take place, will prove to be a landmark. Let us all continue to work hard to make this a day to remember.
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