Pensions’ crisis escalates with unions renewing strike threat

Pensions’ crisis escalates with unions renewing strike threat

	Published : Mon, 28 Nov 2005 17:05 By : Amy Watts Print this Story

LONDON - Even as the report by Adair Turner's Pensions' Committee is due in two days, the battle lines in the pensions issue have been drawn with both the government and the unions holding firm to their respective views.

The unions say that they will resort to a general strike if the "retire at 60" agreement signed by Trade Secretary Alan Johnson is not honored. “Agreements must be honored. Unions accept their side of the bargain and we expect employers, including the Government, to do the same. It is ludicrous to suggest that the Turner report provides a basis for reopening the deal," said Brendan Barber, General Secretary of the TUC.

The Turner report is expected to recommend that the age of retirement be hiked to 67. This recommendation is widely expected to be used by Tony Blair's government to try and renegotiate the deal. “As far as we are concerned the agreement is a done deal. Any suggestion of reopening that would reopen the possibility of industrial action across the public sector," threatened Mark Serwotka, the head of the Public and Commercial Services union.

Business leaders are livid at this deal and say that the country would be go "bust", if this were allowed to happen. Sir Digby Jones, the director general of the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) said that the cost of such a deal was not feasible and that this provision could be applied to workers over 40, but cannot be implemented in the younger age group. "The business community has seen the relationship between this government and the trade unions change and it doesn’t like it. The nation can't afford it - £750 billion a year," Digby predicted.

The Sunday Times has reported in yesterday's editions that Chancellor Gordon Brown was furious at the agreement inked by Alan Johnson and was waiting for the Pensions' report to be made public before sounding his opposition to the deal.

Even the author of the most awaited paper, Adrian Turner was reportedly unhappy with the agreement to allow workers to retire at 60. With the unions holding firm, it remains to be seen how the government will handle this crisis.