Pensions have become the latest industrial relations battlefield. At the end of 2013, strikes over company retirement plans threatened the ESB, Aer Lingus and Marks and Spencer. At around the same time, members of a scheme operated by multinational Element Six, in Shannon, were suing its trustees in the High Court for breach of duty. The schemes at the centre of these disputes are defined-benefit ones, where the pension is tied to the employee’s final salary and the employer is liable for any shortfall in the fund. About 800 companies operate such retirement plans, and the Pensions Board – the regulator –recently stated that half of them are in deficit. The trade unions take the stand that employers should make adequate provision for workers once they retire as they regard pensions as part of their workers’ pay and conditions.
English: http://www.irishtimes.com/business/economy/employment/pensions-a-new-battle ...
For more information, please contact the editor Jan Cremers, Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Labour Studies (AIAS) cbn-aias@uva.nl or the communications officer at the ETUI, Mariya Nikolova mnikolova@etui.org. For previous issues of the Collective bargaining newsletter please visit http://www.etui.org/E-Newsletters/Collective-bargaining-newsletter. You may find further information on the ETUI at www.etui.org, and on the AIAS at www.uva-aias.net.