United Kingdom -Unions warn reform in auto-enrolment pension schemes will hurt lowest paid workers -October 12, 2012

The Trade Union Confederation (TUC) has reacted critically to government plans to raise the earnings trigger for people to be auto-enrolled into workplace pensions. The new scheme would imply that companies are no longer obliged to pay employer pension contributions to workers earning less than £9,205 annually. The TUC warned this measure will negatively affect 585,000 workers, 80% of whom are women. The old trigger (£8,105) already relieved employers from paying contributions for over 3.5 million people. Next to the annual earning trigger, the measure also decreases the income over which contributions need to be paid (from the part of earnings exceeding £5564 to that part above £5720).

English: http://www.tuc.org.uk/economy/tuc-21515-f0.cfm

 

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.