Union signs NHS pension reform pact
Unison says it has signed a 'heads of agreement' with NHS employers and government over reforms to health pensions
Trade unions and the government have achieved a breakthrough over reforms to NHS pensions, amid hopes that ministers will agree a negotiating framework for local government employees.
The largest public sector trade union, Unison, said it had signed a "heads of agreement" with the government over reforms to health pensions after receiving a final offer. Stressing that it has not agreed a formal deal, Unison said the offer would be considered on 10 January by its health committee, which would then decide whether to accept, reject or hold a consultation on the proposals.
Unison, the GMB and Unite have already confirmed a similar arrangement over local government. That accord is backed by the Treasury but is awaiting the approval of the communities secretary, Eric Pickles.
A formal offer has also been tabled in civil service talks, with the cabinet office asking unions to secure approval from their executives on the basic outline of reforms. The formal offer for civil servants, seen by the Guardian, is comprised of sections including the "main parameters" and "areas for further detailed discussion", with one trade union source saying that the heads of agreement is essentially a deal on the framework of reforms, with finer details still to be thrashed out. Talks over education, the last remaining scheme, are taking place in Whitehall.
The developments do not mean an end to the public sector pensions dispute, with union sources stressing that the deals need to be put to a ballot. But they have reduced the threat of renewed strike action after the 30 November walkouts.
Unison's head of health, Christine McAnea, said the offer contained some concessions from the government, such as a pledge that staff less than 10 years from retirement will keep their existing pension arrangements, while those earning under 26,000 will escape a contributions increas! e next y ear.
McAnea said: "On some issues such as contribution rates for the low paid next year, and for people close to retirement we have made progress. On others, we always knew this would be a damage limitation exercise aimed at reducing the worst impacts of the government's pension changes."
Union leaders are preparing to meet at the Trades Union Congress headquarters in London to discuss progress in talks over pensions reforms for health, education, civil service and local government workers.
The government had demanded substantial progress by Monday afternoon, including a heads of agreement for all four schemes, ahead of a planned statement in the House of Commons on Tuesday by the chief secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander.
Education unions are still locked in talks with the Department for Education, and the Cabinet Office has already circulated a draft heads of agreement to civil service unions. The Public and Commercial Services union, which represents civil servants, has pledged to reject a formal offer from the Cabinet Office. The PCS general secretary, Mark Serwotka, said: "Nothing has changed since two million public sector workers were on strike on 30 November and we continue to oppose the government's attempt to force public servants to pay more and work longer for less."
Trade union activists have scheduled a meeting for 7 January at which further strike action could be on the agenda, with the PCS in a position to cause some disruption through its membership among UK Border Agency employees. However, airports and ports escaped serious disruption during the 30 November walkouts, in which the PCS took part.
The government is seeking four major changes to the schemes: a 3.2 percentage point increase in contributions by 2014/2015; pegging the pension age for public sector employees to the state pension age; switching the uprating of benefits from the RPI rate of inflation to the less robust CPI measure; and switching people in final salary schemes to caree! r averag e schemes.
In a joint statement last week, local government unions stressed that they were signing off on a negotiation framework and not a final deal, which would have to be voted on by members. "We believe that if agreed the principles under discussion will provide a very positive framework for negotiations and potentially could lead to no change until 2014," they said.
The heads of agreement deals on health and local government mean that, for now, there will be no repeat of the 30 November walkouts that saw more than one million public sector workers stage the biggest industrial protest since 1979.
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