Employers taking easy way out on pensions

Bill Connor, General Secretary, speaks out in the union’s magazine, Arena, about the current pension crisis.

"After many years of campaigning for better pension provisions and equality of access, it must seriously concern us all at the move away from final salary schemes.

There appears to be a herd instinct among employers who, after taking many contribution holidays in the good times, are now pulling out of good occupational schemes purely to reduce costs. Usdaw will continue to press the Government to take urgent action to stem the tide of employers who are abandoning both their obligations to their loyal staff and their wider social responsibilities.

"Any reforms must include proper consultation rights for trade unions and compulsory contributions from employers. The trade unions have argued over many years that pensions are, in effect, a form of deferred earnings for workers. The TUC are right in describing the current actions of employers in pulling out of final salary schemes as 'the biggest wage cut in history'.

"It is a somewhat depressing fact that it has taken the current pensions crisis to bring home to many thousands of workers the importance of proper pension provision and the need to plan for their retirement.

"Usdaw will continue to campaign on the basis that proper pension provision is a vital component in the overall remuneration package of our members. Pensions can no longer be sidelined from the main bargaining agenda and seen as only a problem for the old. We fight vigorously and vociferously for social justice for today's pensioners and we must now, in earnest fashion, fight for tomorrow's pensioners."

An Usdaw document, Pensions Raising the Profile, was recently debated and passed at the union's Annual Delegate Meeting.

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