UNISON Norfolk county branch has successfully prevented a multi academy trust from setting up an arm’s length company structure which would have denied all new support staff access to the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS).
The TEN group, a multi-academy trust led by the Norwich City College (a further education college), informed UNISON of its plans to deny all new support staff access to the LGPS earlier in the autumn.
If this plan had gone ahead it could have resulted in other academy trusts looking to use the same structure in a cynical attempt to deny new staff access to a decent pension.
The UNISON Norfolk county branch and local stewards supported by the UNISON centre argued strongly against this plan, including raising questions with the department for education.
In the last few days we have received the very welcome news that the TEN group has decided not to go ahead with its plan and will instead review the situation after the next LGPS evaluation in 2017.
This means that new employees will continue to be enrolled into the LGPS. This welcome decision, along with the recent decision by the AET Multi Academy Trust to shelve their proposals to transfer all school support staff to an arms-length company, should act as a deterrent to other multi academy trusts who are trying to set up ‘novel or contentious’ new companies.
Jon Richards, UNISON national secretary for education and children’s services, said:
“This is an important result and I want to pay tribute to the work of the Norfolk county branch and our local reps.
“UNISON will challenge any attempts by employers to introduce new structures that claim to be about improving efficiency, but are in reality an attempt to cut costs by reducing the pay and conditions of support staff.
“The case also highlights the vital importance of having a UNISON steward in every workplace. The early warning from our workplace representatives meant the branch and UNISON centre were able to intervene at an early stage.”
