Pensions

Defend EU migrants’ right to stay!

The House of Lords has voted by a large margin of 102 in favour of guaranteeing the rights of EU citizens in the UK after Brexit. With 358 in favour to 256 against, the Lords backed an amendment to the Article 50 bill, the bill giving the Prime Minister the power to trigger the Brexit process. The amendment said that when the UK leaves the EU, EU citizens should keep all the rights they currently have, regardless of what happens during the Brexit negotiations. The debate on 1 March came down on the correct side, but we can’t and shouldn’t pin our hopes on the unelected second chamber. The...

Four times more unequal

According to the Financial Times (13 February), even big business people are starting to think that top-manager pay has gone over the top. Don’t expect anything too socialistic, but “long-term incentive plans” are being looked at more sourly, as research results heap up to show that the “incentives” have little correlation with business success. The FT reports that top bosses now get an average of £4.3 million a year. “The pay ratio of the average blue-chip chief executive to the average worker, about 140 times in the UK, has escalated from about 33 times in 1984... Pay growth in the US has...

Phillip Green: the face of capitalism

Senior MPs have savaged ex-BHS boss Sir Philip Green for running the high street chain into the ground while amassing “a fortune beyond the dreams of avarice.” A joint report published by the Commons business and work and pensions committees accuses Green of trying to blame anyone but himself for the firm’s problems, despite systematically taking huge sums out of its coffers while leaving BHS workers’ pension fund desperately short. MPs said Mr Green has a “moral duty” to make a “large financial contribution” to the 20,000 pensioners at risk of losing a big chunk of their payouts. The pension...

Who profits from your pension fund?

Railpen is the pension scheme covering 500,000 current and former railworkers in Britain. According to a new book, What they do with your money, reviewed in the Financial Times on 18 June, it used to believe it was paying £75 million a year to financiers to manage its funds. Then it probed further, and found that £290 million was being sucked out of the pension fund each year in fees for “fund managers”. Over 30 years, for example, that would be £9 billion, or over 40% of the total value of the fund. “The finance industry is not designed efficiently to create wealth for others”, comment the...

Who profits from your pension fund

Railpen is the pension scheme covering 500,000 current and former railworkers in Britain. According to a new book, What they do with your money , reviewed in the Financial Times on 18 June, it used to believe it was paying £75 million a year to financiers to manage its funds. Then it probed further, and found that really £290 million was being sucked out of the pension fund each year in fees for "fund managers". Over 30 years, for example, that would be £9 billion, or over 40% of the total value of the fund. "The finance industry is not designed efficiently to create wealth for others"...

Stop the steel pension rip-off!

The sell-off, or potential closure, of Tata Steel will affect not only the 14,000 current UK steel workers but also at least 110,000 former steel workers. All former workers will have their pensions reduced. From the 70s onwards, occupational and private schemes were promoted as a means to take pension out of the hands of the state and away from any argument for democratic political control. There was the added ideological benefit for capitalists — the health of the pension fund, the chase for high profits and all that goes with it, could be presented as being in the future pensioners’...

Industrial news in brief

Strikes over privatisation continue at Bromley Council. Workers are on strike between 10-20 June in a series of selective strikes. Unite members in adult services and transport workers will strike from 10-15 June, library staff between 13-20 June and central council workers on 16 June. The council's cuts plan involves outsourcing most of its services, reducing the number of council employees from 4000 to 300, and privatising 14 libraries. Unite, Unison and community campaigns organised a march through the borough on Saturday 13 June. As well as the privatisation plans Bromley council has...

This website uses cookies, you can find out more and set your preferences here.
By continuing to use this website, you agree to our Privacy Policy and Terms & Conditions.