Looking at the stance that has been put forward by six of the trade unions that have an interest in public sector pensions, it can be seen by the latest information gathered that four look likely to refuse acceptance of the Heads of Agreement scheme put forward by the coalition government on the 19th December 2011, Unison, it seems are making no comment about it’s meeting on the 10th January at this moment
Unison, Unite, Public and Commercial Services Union (PCS), National Association of Schoolmasters Union of Women Teachers (NASUWT) and National Union Teachers (NUT) and Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), have all published their latest information on their websites which is as follows
Unison:- The NHS Pension Scheme Heads of Agreement (HoA). will be considered by the Health Service Group Executive on 10 January 2012.
The NUT will call for further urgent discussions with Government on the future of teachers’ pensions. Before Christmas, the NUT reserved its position on the Government’s proposals. The NUT, the largest teachers’ union, has now agreed to continue to pursue further changes to those proposals.
The NUT remains concerned that proposed increases in employee contributions and pension ages at a time of real terms pay cuts, will lead many teachers to opt out from pension provision and threaten the future of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme. The NUT is also concerned that a large majority of teachers will not be able to work successfully in the classroom to age 68.
The National Executive of the NASUWT, the largest teachers’ union met on the 6th January to consider the DfE proposals for the reform of the Teachers’ Pension Scheme which were presented to teacher unions on 20 December 2011.
The National Executive endorsed unanimously the stance taken by the NASUWT negotiators not to sign up to the Government’s ‘Heads of Agreement’ and to reserve the Union’s position.
The National Executive based its decision on the fact that:
• the Heads of Agreement document is incomplete and lacks an appropriate assessment of the impact of the changes on teachers;
• the manner in which the DfE conducted the process of seeking to reach agreement has been completely unsatisfactory;
• critical issues of concern remain, including the contribution rates and the normal pension age..
PCS
The proposals will be put to the PCS National Executive when it meets on January 10, but in the present form they will not be recommended as they do not provide a basis for agreement. This same offer was unanimously rejected by the NEC on December 6, and rejected by senior reps from PCS Groups at the NCLG meeting on December 14.
UNITE
The government’s latest proposals to cut local government pensions were rejected by Unite, Britain’s biggest union, on Monday, 9 January.
The Unite local authority national industrial sector committee (LANISC), which met 9th January, rejected the ‘principles document’ as a basis for a satisfactory outcome. Last week (5 January) Unite’s health sector national industrial sector committee (HSNISC) also rejected the government’s latest proposals on the NHS pension scheme.
The only union I can find with a different stance is the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), and their comments from 6th January are as follows
Dr Mary Bousted, general secretary of the Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), said: “As a democratic and member-led union we are putting the government’s offer on teachers’ pensions to our members, and this will influence the decision of our executive committee on 28 January.
“The government was quite clear that the offer it made on 19 December was a final offer, and that any further industrial action would not improve it.
“In the current economic and political climate we believe that the 19 December offer is the best deal we could get through negotiation. Further prolonged industrial action, which is the only alternative, could lead to the government imposing significantly worse terms than are currently offered.”
This is the latest information I have to hand. I will be watching with interest the outcome of the two unions, Unison and PCS, meetings today, the 10th January.
Tags: labour, mick grant, pensions, unions
