- Conference
- 2003 Local Government Service Group Conference
- Date
- 20 February 2003
- Decision
- Carried as Amended
This Local Government Service Group Conference notes with considerable concern the Government’s latest consultation papers on retirement benefit options for, and simplification of, the Local Government Pension Scheme.
This Conference believes that these consultation papers should be seen for what they are – an attempt to reduce costs for employers at a time when funds are struggling to perform well in market investments, at the expense of higher contributions from, or less benefits to, employees.
This Conference applauds the Service Group Executive and the National Pensions Section in their efforts in recent years to resist the attempts by successive Governments and local authorities to introduce changes in the Local Government Pension Scheme which are detrimental to UNISON members, and recognises the efforts of the Service Group Executive to press for the removal of inequitable anomalies such as the lack of rights for unmarried partners.
This Service Group Conference calls on the Service Group Executive to resist any attempts to introduce changes detrimental to the interests of our members and stresses in particular:
1)Opposition to any proposals to move away from the “final salary” principle
2)Opposition to any proposals to remove the “85 year rule” option
3)Opposition to raising the retirement age to 65 which will mean members having to work and wait for an extra 5 years to get the same benefits.
4)Opposition to proposals to raise the minimum age for redundancy/receipt of early pension from 50 to 55
5)The urgent necessity of removing the longstanding injustice whereby unmarried partners do not enjoy the same rights as those who are married
Conference believes that, despite a number of deficiencies and inadequacies, the current Local Government Pension Scheme is still seen as a good recruitment/retention condition, at a time when job security and continuous employment are very uncertain. This Conference expresses disappointment that the decision of the 2002 Local Government Conference that a guide to pensions for UNISON members be produced by the 1 January 2003 has not been implemented. This Conference reaffirms the need for such a guide to be published as soon as possible.
Conference calls on the Service Group Executive to give urgent consideration to ways in which campaigns involving UNISON members in local government and further education colleges can be developed with a view to resisting detrimental changes to the LGPS and to securing long overdue improvements.