| Pensions issue haunts Labour Party conference |
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BRIGHTON - The pensions issue is set to snowball into a major happening at the Labour Party conference what with the CBI chief Sir Digby Jones adding his voice to allow people to work beyond the age of 60.
"Without reform, we face the spectre of a ' pensions underclass', with private sector employees and companies struggling to fund pension benefits for themselves, whilst they and even tax paying pensioners are forced to pay for a more generous and earlier retirement for Government workers," Sir Digby is slated to tell the conference today. He says that the government must not get waylaid by the unions and must take bold steps to tackle the pensions conundrum.
"The 'I'm all right Jack' attitude of many public sector union officials really is showing itself. Just who is the public sector for, the people who it serves or the people who work in it? The unions' attitude to pensions reform provides an unacceptable answer," Sir Digby said blasting the unions for their attitude leading up to the conference and beyond. Sir Digby said that companies were going beyond themselves and were putting in an extra £25 billion into the pensions system.
This was well over what they were obligated to shell out. The Government's Pension Protection Fund is on the verge of crossing the £300 million per year mark and companies were forced to bear the brunt of these costs as well, he alleged saying that little had been done solve the public sector provision even as people were living longer and healthier lives.
"The old argument that generous pension provision compensates for low public sector wages no longer holds water, with average pay rises for public workers over the last five years consistently above the private sector average," the CBI chief said even as unions reiterated their stand that should the government proceed on raising the retirement age, they would go on a massive strike, the likes of which was last seen in 1926.
Posted
on : Tue, 27 Sep 2005 06:40 GMT | Pensions News
By : Rob Davis
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