UNISON response to Hutton report on pensions

07/10/2010

Dave Prentis

Dave Prentis, UNISON General Secretary, has responded to the Hutton report on pensions published today. He said:
“Our key priority is to make sure that our members’ pension schemes, that they pay into all their working lives, remain sustainable and affordable and that there is no damaging race to the bottom. We will seek to maintain, using all means possible, the agreements reached two years ago to make our public service schemes sustainable and also protect existing members of the scheme.

“This is an interim report, and UNISON will continue making the case for public sector pensions throughout the course of the review.

“It is only right that the report recognises that public sector pensions are not gold-plated. We are pleased that Hutton recommends keeping a defined benefit scheme, but we are adamant that the final salary scheme should be retained.

“There is a real danger that taking a career average to calculate pensions will see the low paid getting less in their retirement – especially as the government has switched from using the RPI to using the CPI to calculate pensions.

“Public sector workers already pay a sizeable amount into their pension schemes year in, year out. Many of our members would struggle to pay more. Council workers, including home carers, librarians, social workers and dinner ladies, pay in 6.4% of their wages, while NHS workers pay an average of 6.6%.

“Plans to make public sector staff work until they drop will hit the low paid hard. For many public sector staff, working longer is not an option. Many nurses, home carers, paramedics and refuse collectors are already forced into early retirement because of the physical nature of their jobs, and the damage it does to their health.

“It is time the government turned their attention to the private sector, where two thirds of employers don’t provide a single penny towards their employees’ pensions, forcing taxpayers into picking up a massive long-term benefits bill.”


UNISON UK News Release:http://www.unison.org.uk/asppresspack/pressrelease_view.asp?id=2006



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STUC welcomes Hutton acceptance that public pensions are not ‘gold plated’

7 October 2010

The Scottish Trades Union Congress (STUC) has welcomed the acknowledgement from Lord Hutton that public sector pensions are not ‘gold plated’ following the publication of his report into public sector pensions.

Grahame Smith, STUC General Secretary said:
“While welcoming Lord Hutton’s acceptance that defined contribution or money purchase schemes are not the way forward for public sector workers we are concerned that the proposal of higher contributions from public sector workers may reduce the number of members who choose to enter pensions schemes.

“This is self defeating as future Governments will have to meet the cost of supporting public service workers who retire without pensions.  Our fear is that those increased contributions will hit the most vulnerable workers, the low paid and part-time workers who are predominantly women.

“The coalition Government when considering Lord Hutton’s recommendations should remember that public sector pensions schemes have already undergone substantial change with retirement ages in many being raised to 65 in line with the private sector.

“The Government should also review the current method of evaluating pension schemes to provide a more accurate and realistic projection of scheme liabilities.

“The myth that public sector pensions are ‘gold plated’ derives from the race to devalue private sector pensions driven by the greed of large corporations and their share holders, It is deceitful for organisations such as the Institute of Directors to justify transferring the risk for pensions savings to public sector workers to legitimise the tactics of private sector employers”


STUC News Release:
http://www.stuc.org.uk/news/785/stuc-welcomes-hutton-acceptance-that-public-pensions-are-not-gold-plated

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Pension-cutting private companies rob workers of a decent future

UNISON, the UK's largest public services union, today called on private companies to act responsibly and provide decent pensions for their workers, instead of leaving individuals struggling to make complex, often expensive, individual pensions arrangements.


UNISON Scotland is warning that high fees and poor performance means that many people will be left short of money when they retire, even if they have paid into a private pension.

Others are put off from saving by confusion over complicated pensions' policies, and leave taxpayers to pick up the billion pound benefits bill.

Two thirds of employers don't provide a single penny towards their employees' pensions while awarding themselves gold-plated retirement packages. After a lifetime of top salaries, boardroom bonuses and perks, many retire on six figure pensions, while their workforce retire with little or nothing.

Scottish Organiser Dave Watson said: "Public sector workers save year in, year out for their pensions, but most private sector workers are denied this opportunity. Individuals are faced with very complex pension choices and end up with plans that charge high fees, are inefficient and underperform, leaving them not enough money to live on when they retire.

"The Government should act now to bring an end to this pensions apartheid across the country.

"Ironically hardly a week goes by without an attack on the so-called scandal of 'gold-plated pensions' enjoyed by public sector workers such as social workers, nursery nurses, classroom assistants, care workers, nurses and paramedics.

"But the real pensions scandal is how the country will afford to look after the people who have not saved, or not saved enough for their retirement and then need means-tested state benefits?

"Private companies have locked hundreds and thousands of workers out of pension schemes. Despite making profits, many are closing their final salary schemes to staff, leaving them with inadequate defined contribution schemes.

"Some leave their workers with no pension scheme at all. These are the real villains and the Government should make sure they do not get away with leaving taxpayers to foot the benefits bill."

Any perceived savings being called for on public sector pension funds would mean higher costs for taxpayers on a range of means-tested benefits, including pension credit, housing benefit and council tax benefit.

A reduction in public sector pension schemes would also impact heavily on the economy as such schemes provide billions of pounds of investment every year in the UK and Scottish economies. They are more important, not less, at a time of a downturn in private investment.

Scottish Local Government Pension Funds had £19.8 billion invested in 2008, which equates to more than 21% of Scottish GDP (£93.3 billion). The Strathclyde fund, with £9.3 billion invested is the largest in the UK.

Ends

Notes for editors: Newspaper reports today say that a study of high street pensions shows workers are being hit by high charges and hidden fees. See, for example, www.dailyexpress.co.uk/posts/view/190799/British-pensions-are-cut-in-half/

Stay in touch with UNISON Scotland's latest news releases on our website http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/news/index.html  and frequent updates on our blog http://unison-scotland.blogspot.com/

UNISON comprehensively rejects the Independent Budget Review proposals

Date: Thursday 29 July 2010

UNISON Scotland today comprehensively rejected the Independent Budget Review proposals as an assault on public services that will damage the economy.

Scottish Organiser Glyn Hawker said:

“This is not an attempt to balance the books. It is a major assault on vital public services and it is about opening up profit opportunities for the fat cats.

“The report hides behind a rhetoric of ‘tough choices’ and ‘targeting’, but what these proposals will do is reduce the quality of life for all but the richest, as the services we use are removed or run down.

“Once the Scottish people realise that this means handing over their water service to the bankers, reducing the quality of their child’s education and cutting back on their elderly relatives’ care, they will reject this agenda.”

As well as up to 60,000 job losses, the report includes a range of proposals that run the risk of putting us back into recession.

Glyn added:
“Job losses on this scale will of course hit services. And their insistence on redundancies and pay freezes run the risk of taking us back into recession. With 70p in every pound spent on public services finding its way back into the local economy the programme of mass redundancies and real terms wage cuts will be a real blow to many local economies across Scotland.”

UNISON, the largest public services union, has said all along that the real issue is the kind of services our society wants and how we pay for them. It is wrong for politicians to be willing to make cuts on such a scale, yet not to consider fair taxation. The Scottish Parliament has tax varying powers and the people of Scotland voted for it to have them.

The report suggests the council tax freeze is unsustainable and that is correct, but UNISON would also say it is unsustainable not to look at asking those who can pay more in tax to do so.

Glyn said:
“Cuts on this scale will hit middle and low income families hard and will be especially hard on women. If classroom assistants lose their jobs, mums will be expected to volunteer. They also face cuts in before and after school services that could affect whether they can work.”


UNISON response to the Report’s chapter conclusions and recommendations:

Public Spending Environment
UNISON believes all public services are valuable, and should be ring fenced. Why should the ordinary people of Scotland pay for the bankers’ greed? Let us be clear though - the Independent Budget Review argues for a policy of no protected areas in public sector: this means health and education will face cuts along with the rest of our public services.

Fair taxes and government borrowing remain the most cost-effective ways of funding public spending.


Efficiency
The Review accepts that efficiencies will become ever more "challenging" - and then sets a minimum 2% annual efficiency target. The real agenda however is revealed in the well worn recommendations for shared services arrangements across the public sector; and "mainstream roles" for the private and voluntary/third sectors in the delivery of public services. These are not plans for efficient and effective public services - they are in fact costly and inefficient ways of opening up public services to profiteers.


Remuneration and workforce
The loss of up to 60,000 jobs will have a major impact on services. The proper place to deal with public sector pay is in negotiations. Pay freezes and pay cuts for public service workers will damage economic recovery, and hit local communities and small businesses too. UNISON will continue to campaign for fair pay as inflation rises around 5%.

Flexibility would open up issues of equal pay which we are only now resolving after 40 years of the Equal Pay Act.


Universal services
Introducing charges and means testing to services that currently benefit everyone creates an expensive new bureaucracy. If there is a concern that some people are receiving services they can well afford, the value for money option is to charge them via taxation rather than setting up a ‘department for social insecurity’ to administer charging.


Capital
Scottish Water should remain in democratic control. Setting it up as a ‘public interest company’ would be privatisation by stealth.

An enhanced role for the Scottish Futures Trust is likely to see further wasteful use of private financing for public sector projects. Lessons must be learned from the hugely expensive PFI/PPP projects.


Shaping the future
Scotland’s Parliament should provide leadership by working to fund quality public services and resisting a cuts and privatisation agenda.


ends



Notes to Editors:

1. UNISON responses to the report, including two earlier releases today, are here on our frequently updated blog at: http://unison-scotland.blogspot.com/

2. UNISON’s alternative budget is at: www.unison.org.uk/acrobat/18887.pdf

3. UNISON’s submission to the Independent Budget Review is at: http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/response/UNISONResponse_IndependentBudgetReviewApril2010.pdf



For Further Information Please Contact:
Glyn Hawker, Scottish Organiser (Bargaining & Equal Pay) 07876 441 237
Fiona Montgomery, Communications Officer 0141 342 2877 (o) 07908 672 890 (m)
Malcolm Burns, Communications Officer 0141 342 2877 (o) 07958 063 182 (m)

 
 

UNISON rejects fat cat attack on public sector pensions

Date: Wed 7 July 2010



UNISON Scotland has strongly rejected the latest attack on public sector pensions as simply scaremongering by fat cats anxious to keep their own incomes bloated at the expense of cuts for ordinary workers in both public and private sectors.

Dave Watson UNISON Scottish Organiser said:
"The scaremongering by the fat cats today is designed once more to disguise the real pensions divide - between rich and poor, not between public and private sector. Public sector pensions are not gold plated, and they don't cost the billions which these fat cats are claiming. The Institute of Directors is simply anxious to keep its members incomes bloated at the expense of cuts for ordinary workers in both public and private sectors."

A report published today by a new body called the Public Sector Pensions Commission, for the Institute of Directors, has been given widespread coverage in mainstream media. It claims that public sector pensions are costing the taxpayer twice as much as had previously been thought, and that as a result public service workers should pay increased contribution, have their pension age increased and have their pensions reduced.

Dave Watson said:
"In reality the average local government worker gets a pension of around £4,000 per year when they retire. It's a tiny fraction of the fat cat payoffs. And public sector pensions are affordable overall.

"The culprits behind this attack on the pensions of ordinary public service workers are in fact directors of the biggest private companies - real fat cats, with really gold plated pensions. This self-styled 'independent' Public Sector Pensions Commission is nothing of the sort. It is a front for right wing think tank the Institute for Economic Affairs and the Institute of Directors, a club for the bosses of big business.

"Further analysis of this report shows that the time frame chosen for the figures has been highly selective - it just looks at the recent crash when stock values and interest rates have been low - which means returns on pension fund investments have also been low. If the same calculation was done when the market was on the up - as it was and will be again, unless the government causes another recession with its budget cuts - we could slash employee contributions to nothing."

"Also, not all pensions are unfunded. Even for those, there have been years where government has not needed to put extra cash in."

ends


Note for editors:

The TUC has shown that the real evidence of a pensions divide is mainly to be found in the private sector where bosses have been busy closing good schemes to workers, often while making sure their own very large pensions are protected.

The TUC’s 2009 Pensions Watch study of 373 directors from 103 of the UK's top companies found that they were set to earn a yearly pension of £247,785 on average. This is 30 times the average workplace pension that ordinary workers (across public and private sectors) receive, which was £8,320 in 2009. (An increase on 2008 when the bosses took 25 times the average pension - it seems the fat cats like their own pensions to be recession proof as well.)

When it comes to accrual rates, the bosses make sure they are feather-bedded too. Pension Watch 2009 found that the most common accrual rate for directors was 1/30th, in comparison the most common accrual rate for all members of private sector final salary schemes is 1/60th. What that means is that directors on average accrue pension benefits twice as fast as both their own workforces, and indeed the public sector workforce as a whole. (The Institute of Directors now wants the public sector to move to 1/80th).

http://www.tuc.org.uk/extras/PensionsWatch2009.pdf
http://www.tuc.org.uk/extras/PensionsWatch2008.pdf



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BBC blueprint for attack on public sector pensions

Tuesday 29 June 2010

Commenting on BBC pension cuts and public sector pensions, Dave Watson, UNISON Scottish Organiser, said:

"Clearly public sector pensions are now under full attack. We've had all the scaremongering and mythmaking about gold plated pensions for public sector workers. The truth is the average pension in local government is just £4,000 a year, and that's not gold plated.

"In fact public sector pensions are sustainable and affordable - we have already gone through massive changes to ensure that. There is no reason why public sector workers should pay for the bailout of the bankers. Public sector workers and their unions will defend decent pensions, by industrial action if necessary."


See BBC News website

BBC to cut staff pension benefits
15:44 GMT, Tuesday, 29 June 2010
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/10443981.stm
"BBC business editor Robert Peston says the plans could be a blueprint for future public-sector pension plans."
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Public sector pensions' review should be comprehensive and independent, says UNISON

Mon 21 June 2010


UNISON has called on the Government to make sure that its public sector pensions review body is truly independent and takes evidence from unions and pension fund trustees.

General Secretary, Dave Prentis, has further urged the Government to stop issuing misleading figures and mis-informed statements about public sector pensions and wait for the results of the review. He said:
“Only three years ago, public sector pensions went through massive changes to make them sustainable and affordable. Since then, there has been constant sniping and carping by the Tories and LibDems about unreformed, gold-plated pensions, quoting grossly misleading figures to create a climate for cuts.

“We are happy to participate in any review and to give evidence to that review, but the Government has a responsibility to make sure that it is independent and not a rubber-stamp for its ideological attacks on public services.

“Bringing in John Hutton as chair doesn’t fool anyone. I am disappointed that a former Labour minister would allow himself to be used as a tool to attack low paid public sector workers.

“The average pension in local government is just £4,000 a year, dropping to £2,600 for women. People pay into these schemes all their working lives – if they didn’t, they would have to rely on state benefits, funded by the taxpayer.

“The review to the NHS scheme in 2008 gives complete protection to the public purse. The employers’ contribution is capped at 14% and, if the cost rises, it is health workers who will pick up the bill”.

ends
 
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If Nick Clegg comes for our pensions, we'll ballot for industrial action - Prentis

From The Independent:

Union warning over threat to pensions

By Jon Smith, Press Association

The Government found itself on an early collision course with millions of public sector workers tonight when the leader of one of the country's biggest unions warned of industrial action over pensions.

Dave Prentis, general secretary of Unison, launched a scathing attack on the Conservative-Lib Dem coalition and pledged a campaign against spending cuts.

He told his union's annual conference in Bournemouth that the Government "won't know what hit them" if it takes on public sector workers and cuts services, pay and pensions.

The Government came under attack from several unions today after Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg criticised the "gold-plated" public sector pensions system as "unfair" on private sector workers.

Mr Prentis said to loud applause from 2,000 delegates: "If Nick Clegg comes for our pensions, then we will ballot for industrial action."



Full report on The Independent's website


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BBC interview: Dave Prentis attacks government pensions scaremongering

UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis today rejected government attacks on public sector pensions in an interview on BBC Radio Scotland's Good Morning Scotland programme.

He hit out at claims the pensions are 'gold-plated', given the average pension in local government for women is just £50 a week.

The full interview is available on the BBC iPlayer at www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00sq2pn/Good_Morning_Scotland_15_06_2010/  at 1 hour 45 minutes into the broadcast.

UNISON UK press release
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Government double speak and myths about public sector pensions

UNISON, the UK’s largest public sector union today hit back at the Government’s attack on public sector pensions, accusing them of scaremongering, peddling myths and of breathtaking double-speak.

Dave Prentis, UNISON General Secretary, said:

“Only a few months ago, Clegg was warning that cutting public spending now would threaten the economic recovery. Now he is saying that public sector workers should pay the price for the banker’s recession, with cuts to their pensions.

“The Government is using breathtaking double-speak to peddle myths about public sector pension schemes - trying to pit public sector workers against those in the private sector - and it just won’t work.

“These pension myths are scaremongering. There are no unreformed, gold-plated pension pots. The average pension in local government is just £4,000 a year dropping to £2,600 for women. Public sector pensions have already gone through massive changes to ensure they are sustainable and affordable.

“It is grossly misleading to pick one moment in time and apply that to the 20-30 years of a pension scheme cycle. You have got to look at why pension costs are rising. Costs are based on stocks and shares and the collapse in the stock market has hit all schemes But pensions are for the long term – a 20 year timeframe is more appropriate to assess the true cost - the Government’s knee-jerk reaction makes no sense. These figures are put out there to create an aura for cuts, but they are not the true picture.

“The review to the NHS scheme in 2008 gives complete protection to the public purse. The employers’ contribution is capped at 14% and, if the cost rises, it is health workers who will pick up the bill.

“The Government should be encouraging people to save for their retirement, not attacking workers who do. If people do not save for their pension, through a decent scheme – they will end up having to rely on taxpayer funded benefits in their retirement.”

UNISON UK press release


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Pensions – private sector cutbacks threaten burden on the state

The action of private sector bosses in cutting staff’s pensions is likely to threaten the UK’s economy, UNISON's Mike Kirby told the STUC today. Mike, UNISON Scotland Convener, pointed to the closure of large numbers of decent private sector pension schemes, and raise the spectre of a huge increase in benefits demands by their shortchanged staff.

He said, “Far from the tired old myth peddled by the CBI and the Tax Dodgers Alliance - that public sector pensions are unsustainable, and a huge drain on the taxpayer - the real demand on the taxpayer is likely to come from employees of their own members who have had fair pensions cut, while their bosses protect their own large pensions. The private sector wants the public purse to bail out their employees pensions shortfall, just as it bailed out the busted banks and caused this recession.”

The STUC called on government to maintain fair and decent public sector pensions, and not to heed misleading calls by the private sector and the media condemning public service workers to reliance on means-tested benefits.

Mike said, “The real time-bomb for the taxpayer is the means-tested benefits bill, and increased take up of social care and health services to support people who have been shut out of saving for their retirement. We already face such demands thanks to the irresponsible actions of the banking fat cats like those at Goldman Sachs, and the selfish actions of private firms cutting their own staff pensions. Closing public sector schemes would see the bill to the taxpayer rocket by billions.”

The STUC unanimously backed a call for decent pensions for all workers, public and private sector, and go on to call for an increased state pension, linked to earnings.


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Taxpayers' Alliance gets its sums wrong on local government pensions, again

UNISON has accused the Taxpayers' Alliance of deliberately manipulating figures to suit their claims that local government pensions face a black hole*.

The TA, a tax-cutting pressure group, in comparing liabilities to assets, is deliberately making a ridiculous assumption that everyone will retire at once, tomorrow.

The local government pension scheme is affordable and sustainable and its income exceeded expenditure by almost £6 billion in the last year.

Dave Watson (UNISON Scottish organiser), said: "The so-called Taxpayers' Alliance deliberately distorts the true picture to suit their claims and their tax cutting aims. Their claims are based on the nonsensical supposition that everyone is going to retire at once, tomorrow. Neither do these pensions cost £1 of every £5 of council tax, because council tax makes up only a small percentage of funding.

"Local government pensions are affordable and sustainable. A new scheme has recently been agreed that increases staff contributions. They are funded by employers, employees and by investment income. The LGPS generates one-third of its own income, and contributions from employers in Scotland are going down.

"Remember, too, that we are not talking about gold-plated pensions, here. Local government workers like classroom assistants, home carers, social workers, refuse collectors, and dinner ladies, contribute all their working lives to gain a pension that averages just £3,800 pa, yet the Taxpayer's Alliance, would apparently prefer them to have that pension cut and force them to rely on state benefits. What we need is some perspective here and a move away from a race to the bottom on pensions.

"The real pensions scandal in this country is that the majority of company directors can retire at 60, with a final salary pension 25 times higher than the national average which they accrue twice as fast as both their workforce and the public sector workforce. They then campaign for low paid public service workers to take a pension cut.

"The so-called 'Taxpayers Alliance' would be better employed directing their firepower at the real gold-plated pensioners. Big business bosses who award themselves generous pensions while closing decent schemes for their staff. But they won't of course, because this would be biting the hand that feeds them".


* Council pensions report by the Taxpayers' Alliance

Note for editors:
THE FACTS ABOUT THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT PENSION SCHEME:
1. It is funded by employer contributions, employee contributions and investment income.
2. It is cash positive - member benefits paid out in 2008-2009 were £5.6 billion against gross income of £10.2 billion.
3. The total value of combined assets in England, Wales, Scotland and NI was £143 billion (in 2008).
4. That's 5 times greater than the largest single pension fund in the UK.
5. Total assets of the 89 LGPS funds are equivalent to 10% of GDP.
6. 60% of the fund is invested in equities or shares - in UK and global stock markets.
7. By 2008, more than £1 billion was invested in each of the top four FTSE companies and it owned 1.3% of seven of the top nine companies in the UK.
8. £4.7 billion invested in the big four banks - Barclays, HBOS, HSBC, RBS and
9. £2.3 billion in the 49 largest companies delivering UK public services in local government, the NHS and the utilities.


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Angry reaction from UNISON on attempts to curb public service pay

Wed 9 December 2009


UNISON has reacted angrily to the possibility of a future cap on public sector pay and pensions, floated in Chancellor Alistair Darling's pre-budget report. He said "I can announce that, for the two years from 2011, we will seek to ensure that all public sector pay settlements be capped at 1 per cent."

Dave Prentis, UNISON's General Secretary said:
"I am not going to sign up to this. I know how our members feel - they feel angry and betrayed. It is just not on to make nurses, social workers, dinner ladies, cleaners and hospital porters pay the price for the folly of the bankers.

"The people who earn most should pay the most. Instead we have the disgraceful spectacle of rich bankers threatening to leave the country if they don't get their massive bonuses. Where is their loyalty? In tough times the rich should show leadership, not run off to the nearest tax haven."

In Scotland, both public service pay and pensions are devolved and any similar aspirations will need to be decided by the Scottish Government.

Glyn Hawker, Scottish Organiser for Bargaining and Equality said
"We will be pressing the Scottish Government not to adopt similar measures. It is their responsibility and they must take a responsible decision that benefits the economy and public services here.

"For every £1 a public sector work earns they spend 70p in their local community. Any squeeze on their pay will put a stranglehold on local businesses and services, cutting off much needed income.

UNISON has welcomed the proposals to impose a one-off levy on large bonuses in the banking sector and the introduction of measures to tackle tax avoidance and evasion. The potential increase in Scottish public finances as a result of the Barnett formula received a cautious welcome.

Glyn said
"We don't know yet where the Treasury - announced additional moneys will be spent, but it is important that public services in Scotland and those who deliver them are fully funded to drive us out of recession, and continue to deliver quality services."

The union also reacted strongly against Tory suggestions of even more damaging cuts in public services.

Dave Prentis said
"We know that if our public services are cut just when our communities need them most, the manufacturing industry will also go into crisis. Manufacturing is dependent on public procurement to keep going. Attacking public service jobs and pay is misguided. It will make the recession worse. It will undo all the work that has been done towards giving our communities world-class services."


ENDS

For further information please contact:
Glyn Hawker, Scottish Organiser 07876 441 237(m)
Dave Watson, Scottish Organiser 07958 122 409(m)
Chris Bartter, Communications Officer 07715 583 729(m)


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Executive pension report - UNISON reaction

23/07/09


UNISON, the UK’s largest public sector union, is welcoming the Lane Clark & Peacock report findings, which expose an apartheid that exists between those at the top and low paid workers.

Glyn Jenkins, UNISON’s Head of Pensions:

“We hear a lot about gold plated public sector pensions, but the real apartheid is between boardroom fat cats and low paid workers."

See full release at:
http://www.unison.org.uk/asppresspack/pressrelease_view.asp?id=1513


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Glasgow outsourcing tax scam removes democratic control, and attacks fair pay

Date: Tuesday 21 April 2009

UNISON, the main union representing Glasgow council staff, has condemned that council’s increasing reliance on outsourced trusts and Limited Liability Partnerships (LLPs) to deliver public services. Currently around 15,000 staff are employed by nine LLPs, trusts and partnerships in Glasgow.

In a speech to the Scottish TUC in Perth today (Tuesday 21), Mike Kirby, Scottish Convenor of UNISON, the largest public service union and Chair of its Glasgow City Branch will denounce the rush to outsource services as a tax scam that abandons democratic control, and allows the council to avoid its legal duty to pay men and women equally.

Mike will say “A recent Glasgow Council report into these ‘arms length external organisations’ admits that these ALEOs are a tax scam, that they lead to loss of democratic control by councillors, and that they can avoid more equal pay claims because they have fewer comparators. So much for the Labour Government’s public sector equality duty.”

Mike will also point to the farce created by an earlier outsourced organisation when the Glasgow Housing Association Ltd awarded one of their repairs and maintenance contracts to a private building company – Connaught, only to find they couldn’t meet the contract specifications on covering the workforce pensions.

Mike will say “Connaught had to be sacked and that workforce returned to their previous employer – City Building, after they spent 2 days travelling around the city – from Hampden Park, to Connaught, to GHA, to Glasgow City Council.”

Moving the composite motion on Public Services, Mike will also point to the huge waste of taxpayers money being paid to management and IT consultants to recommend efficiencies and shared services. Billions of pounds that should have been spent on the services themselves. The composite will set out a charter to defend and build on the public service consensus in Scotland.

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Real pension divide is between bosses and staff - UNISON

Date: Friday 27 February 2009

In the wake of the news that Fred Goodwin has already started drawing a pension of £650k per year, UNISON - Scotland's public service union - says that this highlights the real pensions divide in the UK economy.

A briefing by the union issued today (27 February), summarises information from the Pensions Policy Institute, the National Association for Pensions Funds and the TUC to point out that the majority of company directors can retire at 60, with a final salary pension 25 times higher than the national average which they accrue twice as fast as both their workforce and the public sector workforce.

Dave Watson, UNISON's Scottish Organiser, said:
"This information from independent sources, shows that those with the real gold-plated pensions are private sector directors. The very people who are leading the clamour to attack the pensions of low-paid, hard working public service staff. Fred Goodwin's pension is simply one example - the top directors in FTSE 100 companies averaged a pension of £333,664 p.a. in 2008 - and this figure has gone up by 4% since the previous year."

In addition - despite the manipulated statistics put out by organisations like the Taxpayers Alliance - public sector workers tend to pay more into their pension than private sector staff, and accrue their pension at the same rate as staff in the private sector. However the pension for new entrants to public sector pensions is only similar to a medium private sector final salary scheme.

Dave Watson said:
"The Taxpayers Alliance, and other private sector-sponsored campaign groups again spit their vitriol against public service workers. For example, local government workers like classroom assistants, home carers, social workers, refuse collectors, and dinner ladies, contribute all their working lives to gain a pension that averages just £3,800 pa, yet the Taxpayer's Alliance, would apparently prefer them to have that pension cut and force them to rely on state benefits."

"They would be better employed directing their firepower at the real gold-plated pensioners. Big business bosses who award themselves generous pensions while closing decent schemes for their staff. But they won't of course, because this would be biting the hand that feeds them."

ENDS

Note for editors:
The briefing from UNISONScotland is available from either contact below, or on the Scottish website - http://www.unison-scotland.org.uk/briefings/198pensionsupdate.pdf

For Further Information Please Contact:
Dave Watson (Scottish Organiser) 07958 122 409(m)
Chris Bartter (Communications Officer) 0771 558 3729(m)

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A warning from Jane Carolan as politicians and press attack our pensions

Press release: 4 January 2009

As the politicians and the press gang up on the attack, who will defend our public service pensions? We will! says UNISON Scotland NEC member JANE CAROLAN.

Jane Carolan is one of Scotland's members on the union's National Executive and has the key role of chairing the UNISON's UK Policy Committee

Over the past few years, there has been nothing that has agitated UNISON members more that the fight to protect their pensions, a fight that has seen members prepared to take to the streets in strike action.

Just as negotiations on the Scottish Local Government pensions draw to a close, and after NHS colleagues have settled on their scheme, the threat to a decent standard of living in old age is again under threat.

It started when “the pensions crisis” in the public sector was at it’s height in 2006 and it has never let up since then, but since the start of the current financial crisis in September of this year, the media critics of public sector pensions have been having a field day, demanding that “the pensions apartheid “ is ended.

Headlines on a daily basis refer to “Pensions Haves and Have-Nots” or are issuing “Warnings over Public Sector Pensions”. We in the trade union movement have never known the Daily Express or Daily Mail to be our friends but the vitriol heaped on on public sector workers has rarely reached such heights and is repeated on a regular daily basis.

Millions of readers are drip fed continually that our pensions are “cushy” , “gold plated” and “A luxury that the country can’t afford”.

Have they ever quoted the figure that the average local government pensioner receives? Just for the record, that’s £3800 per year or £74 per week. What is usually quoted is the figure for a high flying, highly paid civil servant, and while we would all like that level of pension, for our members such a pension is a dream.

Unfortunately, the media loves a stereotype and the gold plated pensioner is now accepted. This isn’t restricted to the tabloid press. Recently the Independent has railed about the fact that there is “no class divide any more, just the difference between the fat cat, featherbedded public sector pensioners and the rest”.

Politicians take up cause

Where the media in this country lead, there are always politicians willing to follow. First out of the stalls was Eric Pickles, the current Tory Shadow Secretary of State for communities and Local Government. Eric has fallen for the hype and believes the myths and is quite clear that the time has come for “reform” in his words, destruction of public sector pensions to the rest of us.

Tory intentions were made clear by the intervention of their leader, David Cameron. Cameron has been very, very clear about his plans for the future. Cameron wants an end to pensions “apartheid”.

Even his choice of language here is offensive. But his intentions could not be clearer. Cameron goes for the jugular vowing to end the final salary schemes that we currently have, replacing them with stock market linked plans. The results of the plan will be simple - pension poverty for millions of public sector workers.

He’s been backed by the Liberal Democrats, who also see our pensions as “unsustainable and unaffordable”

Who will defend us?

As UNISON General Secretary Dave Prentis has pointed out, if any political party wants to improve pensions they should start by urging the private sector in this country to face up to their responsibilities by setting up decent pensions schemes.

Any solution should be based on levelling up, not by cutting the public sector pensions that we are all going to rely on. Highly profitable private sector companies are pulling out of the provision of pension schemes but their actions don’t make the headlines in the same way.

We have been prepared to take strike action on our pensions in the past. We need to scrutinise the plans of those who would seek to govern us, and be aware of they in which their programmes are likely to affect us.
At the end of the day, defending our pensions will come down to us.


Article first published in Scotland in UNISON Magazine December 2008
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