After 30 November, what next?
(12/12/11) 30 November was an historic day – millions of public service workers uniting to say: "Enough is enough" in reply to the attack on their pensions.
But where do we go from here?
The strike had a purpose: to get ministers to negotiate meaningfully.
And we've already had an effect. Since 30 November, central negotiations, led by Dave Prentis, have resumed and negotiations are taking place around the specific schemes.
Meanwhile, the TUC public sector liaison group meets on 15 December to assess the strike and plan the way forward, while UNISON's own service group executives will meet in January. The union also plans to hold its third pensions summit in January.
And we need to keep the momentum going among members after 30 November: keep campaigning and highlighting the pensions issue, get recruiting, and prepare for further action if necessary.
But what is happening in the three main pension schemes that affect UNISON members?
In local government, the strike has led to new developments in negotiations over the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) for England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Meetings are taking place before Christmas with the Local Government Association (LGA) and Local Government Employers (LGE) to attempt to agree principles and a timetable for negotiations early in 2012 that would defer any change within the LGPS until 2014.
At the time of going to press, if the Treasury and the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) agree the principles and timetable, it would allow negotiations to cover both short and long-term changes to the LGPS and, in the process, seek to minimise contribution increases.
There is consensus between the employers and unions that the £900m 'tax' demanded by Eric Pickles would lead to opt-outs from the scheme and possibly undermine some individual funds within it.
In the months leading up to 30 November, UNISON, GMB and Unite – on behalf of the 11 LGPS unions – had met the leaders of the political groupings within the Local Government Association and representatives of the Local Government Employers to explore the possibility for a joint response to the coalition’s demand for £900m short-term ‘savings’ from the LGPS.
UNISON and the other unions have consistently argued that the scheme has made £2bn savings since 2008, that pay freezes and job losses have also led to savings and that the 23% of the value of the LGPS generated by investments should be set against any 'savings'.
While there was agreement that the savings could not be met from a scheme within which 70% of members earn less than £21,000 a year without leading to opt-outs and undermining the scheme itself, it was not possible to agree a way forward.
The LGA and LGE therefore put forward proposals of their own, which are now part of the formal consultation on short-term savings being run by the DCLG, with a deadline of 6 January.
Since then, there have also been meetings of the DCLG policy review group, within which there has been consensus between employers, actuaries, fund managers and the unions that the short-term savings required by Mr Pickles could not be delivered without potentially harming the scheme, meaning alternative ways of realising the ‘savings’ need to be looked for.
Both DCLG and LGA proposals contain changes to the accrual rate to achieve part of the savings.
The 'reference scheme' for longer-term changes to all public sector pensions from 2015 put forward by Danny Alexander calls for an accrual rate of 1/60 – the same as the current LGPS – linked to a career-average scheme.
It also provides for protection of benefits and retirement ages for those within 10 years of retirement and some tapered protection for those just outside of the 10-year limit.
UNISON and the other LGPS unions want to make sure that any changes to the LGPS are of equivalent value to members as other public-sector schemes and that the specific features of its membership, pay levels and funding are reflected in any changes; including keeping the Fair Deal on Pensions.
We therefore sought – and have agreement from Mr Alexander and the DCLG – to negotiate on the short and long-term issues together, to find solutions that are appropriate to the LGPS membership and the structure of the scheme itself.
In health, on 6 December the government announced that it was formally consulting on increases to the pension contributions in year one, which raise the cap at which staff start to pay increased contributions from £15,000 to £26,557.
Anyone who is earning less than this will have no increase in their pension contributions for 2012. This covers around 48% of all NHS workers and a much higher percentage of UNISON members.
While this is good news, and protects the lowest paid, it is only for one year and is only one element of the negotiations.
Discussions are currently focused on the accrual rate, the length of protection, how pensions will be uprated and retirement age. The unions want to minimise the impact of any changes on existing scheme members while keeping the scheme fair for younger staff and new joiners, and keep the Fair Deal.
At the start of these negotiations, accrual rates of 1/100 were being talked about – now we have a much more realistic figure of at least 1/60.
The government has the same protections for those near retirement as in the LGPS, and the unions are examining whether this can be extended.
The government seems intent on moving from final salary to career average (CARE) schemes across the public sector.
UNISON has never been opposed to CARE schemes in principle as these often benefit women and lower-paid members.
However, the type and value of the CARE scheme is important: various models are being considered for the NHS pay bands.
We still believe the timetable set by the government is unrealistic and unfair. We are making some progress in arguing that it is important to get this right rather than rush – but the government remains committed to and end-of-year deadline.
In the Civil Service pension scheme, 30 November reinforced the hand of negotiators working on behalf of members.
There have been regular meetings between unions and the Cabinet Office about the future of the scheme.
At the time of writing, there have been no proposals put forward, but discussions have centred around something similar to the existing career-average 'Nuvos' scheme for new starters.
But where do we go from here?
The strike had a purpose: to get ministers to negotiate meaningfully.
And we've already had an effect. Since 30 November, central negotiations, led by Dave Prentis, have resumed and negotiations are taking place around the specific schemes.
Meanwhile, the TUC public sector liaison group meets on 15 December to assess the strike and plan the way forward, while UNISON's own service group executives will meet in January. The union also plans to hold its third pensions summit in January.
And we need to keep the momentum going among members after 30 November: keep campaigning and highlighting the pensions issue, get recruiting, and prepare for further action if necessary.
But what is happening in the three main pension schemes that affect UNISON members?
In local government, the strike has led to new developments in negotiations over the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) for England, Wales and Northern Ireland.
Meetings are taking place before Christmas with the Local Government Association (LGA) and Local Government Employers (LGE) to attempt to agree principles and a timetable for negotiations early in 2012 that would defer any change within the LGPS until 2014.
At the time of going to press, if the Treasury and the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) agree the principles and timetable, it would allow negotiations to cover both short and long-term changes to the LGPS and, in the process, seek to minimise contribution increases.
There is consensus between the employers and unions that the £900m 'tax' demanded by Eric Pickles would lead to opt-outs from the scheme and possibly undermine some individual funds within it.
In the months leading up to 30 November, UNISON, GMB and Unite – on behalf of the 11 LGPS unions – had met the leaders of the political groupings within the Local Government Association and representatives of the Local Government Employers to explore the possibility for a joint response to the coalition’s demand for £900m short-term ‘savings’ from the LGPS.
UNISON and the other unions have consistently argued that the scheme has made £2bn savings since 2008, that pay freezes and job losses have also led to savings and that the 23% of the value of the LGPS generated by investments should be set against any 'savings'.
While there was agreement that the savings could not be met from a scheme within which 70% of members earn less than £21,000 a year without leading to opt-outs and undermining the scheme itself, it was not possible to agree a way forward.
The LGA and LGE therefore put forward proposals of their own, which are now part of the formal consultation on short-term savings being run by the DCLG, with a deadline of 6 January.
Since then, there have also been meetings of the DCLG policy review group, within which there has been consensus between employers, actuaries, fund managers and the unions that the short-term savings required by Mr Pickles could not be delivered without potentially harming the scheme, meaning alternative ways of realising the ‘savings’ need to be looked for.
Both DCLG and LGA proposals contain changes to the accrual rate to achieve part of the savings.
The 'reference scheme' for longer-term changes to all public sector pensions from 2015 put forward by Danny Alexander calls for an accrual rate of 1/60 – the same as the current LGPS – linked to a career-average scheme.
It also provides for protection of benefits and retirement ages for those within 10 years of retirement and some tapered protection for those just outside of the 10-year limit.
UNISON and the other LGPS unions want to make sure that any changes to the LGPS are of equivalent value to members as other public-sector schemes and that the specific features of its membership, pay levels and funding are reflected in any changes; including keeping the Fair Deal on Pensions.
We therefore sought – and have agreement from Mr Alexander and the DCLG – to negotiate on the short and long-term issues together, to find solutions that are appropriate to the LGPS membership and the structure of the scheme itself.
In health, on 6 December the government announced that it was formally consulting on increases to the pension contributions in year one, which raise the cap at which staff start to pay increased contributions from £15,000 to £26,557.
Anyone who is earning less than this will have no increase in their pension contributions for 2012. This covers around 48% of all NHS workers and a much higher percentage of UNISON members.
While this is good news, and protects the lowest paid, it is only for one year and is only one element of the negotiations.
Discussions are currently focused on the accrual rate, the length of protection, how pensions will be uprated and retirement age. The unions want to minimise the impact of any changes on existing scheme members while keeping the scheme fair for younger staff and new joiners, and keep the Fair Deal.
At the start of these negotiations, accrual rates of 1/100 were being talked about – now we have a much more realistic figure of at least 1/60.
The government has the same protections for those near retirement as in the LGPS, and the unions are examining whether this can be extended.
The government seems intent on moving from final salary to career average (CARE) schemes across the public sector.
UNISON has never been opposed to CARE schemes in principle as these often benefit women and lower-paid members.
However, the type and value of the CARE scheme is important: various models are being considered for the NHS pay bands.
We still believe the timetable set by the government is unrealistic and unfair. We are making some progress in arguing that it is important to get this right rather than rush – but the government remains committed to and end-of-year deadline.
In the Civil Service pension scheme, 30 November reinforced the hand of negotiators working on behalf of members.
There have been regular meetings between unions and the Cabinet Office about the future of the scheme.
At the time of writing, there have been no proposals put forward, but discussions have centred around something similar to the existing career-average 'Nuvos' scheme for new starters.
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