Coalition Government concessions on public sector pension changes have not proved enough for the unions to call off their proposed day of action at the end of this month.
The point was rammed home earlier today when members of Unison, the UK’s largest union, voted overwhelmingly in favour of striking by 245,359 for to 70,253 against. Senior union officials were meeting this afternoon to decide what action to take as a result and to discuss the Government’s latest offer, which they described as a "marked improvement on earlier proposals".
A 90-minute meeting yesterday had seen Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander and Cabinet Office Minister, Francis Maude, make a number of revised proposals to the TUC’s Public Sector Liaison Group.
Alexander, who has been leading the union negotiations, said that he hoped that the suggestions, which amounted to the Government’s ”best offer”, would pave the way for a settlement lasting 25 years. In fact, he said that they should be “more than sufficient” to avert strike action.
But the unions were not so convinced. Although the TUC’s PSLG welcomed movement in the Government’s position, it said that it would require time to evaluate the detailed implications of the offer on each individual area of the public sector including health and education.
But individual members of the umbrella union organisation said that they would continue to ballot up to three million workers on mass industrial action, which is scheduled to take place on Wednesday, 30 November, however.
The TUC said in a statement: “All the unions have indicated throughout this process their determination to reach a negotiated settlement on all these issues. That remains the position and the unions will engage intensively in the coming weeks.”
Better than private sector
But it continued: “Unless and until further real progress is made and acceptable offers are made within those negotiations, unions remain firmly committed to continuing their preparations for the planned day of action on November 30.”
Another PSLG meeting will be held later this month in order to consider reports on progress made in any specific sector talks.
The Government has now proposed that none of the one million public sector employees who are due to retire in the next 10 years from 1 April 2012 would have to work any longer than that and they would also be able to keep existing final salary schemes.
It has also offered an 8% more generous accrual rate than previously planned, which means that pension pots would build up more quickly, and higher “cost ceilings” or the limits on contributions made by the Government.
But the sticking points remain the fact that staff will still need to work longer, pay higher contributions and see indexation linked to the consumer rather than the higher retail price index, a proposition that the unions are currently challenging in the High Court.
When asked about the discussions at Prime Minister’s Questions, Prime Minister David Cameron said: “This, I think is a very fair offer to hard-working public servants to say this is a strong set of pension reforms, which will give you pensions that are still better than anything available in the private sector.”
