Government statement on pensions - UNISON response

The Government’s statement, laid in the House of Commons yesterday, outlining its position on public sector pensions is merely that - it is not a statement of the trade union side position. Our position is outlined in a letter sent to Danny Alexander, on behalf of all unions by TUC General Secretary, Brendan Barber, and is copied below. All the unions and professional organisations are now in their relevant scheme specific talks to make sure that our pension rights are protected. Our aim is to get a final offer so that members can see whether or not their pension schemes will be maintained or reduced. We expect these talks to be serious and any proposed changes must be based on clear evidence and not simply an excuse to find money to pay off the country’s financial deficit.The TUC will be co-ordinating the timetable and the talks will take place over the coming months and are scheduled to conclude by the end of October. In the meantime, we are accelerating our planning of future industrial action strategy so that we can move quickly and effectively, should those talks fail.Brendan Barber’s letter to Danny Alexander Dear DannyThank you for your letter of today’s date setting out the Government's view on the state of play reached in our negotiations and proposing that our discussions should continue both in the central process and by opening up scheme by scheme discussions.As your letter reports in paragraph 3 a number of areas of agreement have been identified and we have agreed language on equality impacts, participation rates and opt outs, and scheme governance and administration. A number of practical issues arising from paragraph 11 on local government need further consideration and I will write to you separately on this.As you also know however significant differences remain on key issues and at this stage to avoid any risk of misunderstanding I need to make it clear that (contrary to the introduction to paragraph 12) we have not agreed to or accepted any of the Government’s objectives as described in your letter, or the change in indexation from RPI to CPI. Nevertheless, following a meeting of our PSLG, I am able to confirm that we are prepared to continue our discussions at central level and unions individually in each sector will be actively considering participating in scheme level talks in order to fully explore all the issues and to enable unions and their members to reach a judgement on whether agreement is possible or whether more unions will enter into dispute and plan industrial action. Yours sincerely