The surgeries will take place on Wednedays 15 Feb, 14 March, 18 April and 16 May 2012 in Stoke.

Appointments need to be made direct with Lighthouse Financial Advice – details of which are on the poster - Lighthousefinancialsurgery

This will be preceded by a buffet tea at 4.45pm.

If you are a member of this branch and would like to order food, please e-mail the branch office, stating your name, department and workplace location.

Reports for the meeting are as follows:

• Agenda – 8MARCH2012AGM
• Minutes of the 2011 AGM – 3MARCH2011AGM
• Annual report – not yet available
• Statement Of Accounts - not yet available – awaiting completion of Audit

D Prentis highlighted the fact that UNISON remains in dispute with the Coalition over its attacks on our pensions and that the ballot is still ‘live’. We will not have to re-ballot at the end of negotiations if they fail. Any decision on final proposals in either the NHS or LGPS will be a decision for members, through an all-member ballot. If proposals are rejected, members will be asked whether they want to take further industrial action. He also made it clear that there will be lay member involvement in future negotiations.

Key points on the joint briefing are available here – LGPS_PoP Campaign 11

• Winter_Fuel_Application_2012
• Winter Fuel Flyer 2012

Closing date for applications if 29 February 2012.  

10/1/12 – UNISON activists have voted today to give the union’s negotiators the green light to continue discussions with government ministers on changes to public sector pensions.
 
More than 250 key elected national, regional, rank and file activists met at UNISON’s headquarters to discuss the details of the proposals for the Local Government and Health pension schemes. They agreed to the frameworks negotiators have developed with Government ministers since 30 November.
 
Dave Prentis, UNISON General Secretary said
 
“UNISON is a democratic union, and in today’s consultation, our elected activists from every service group in the local government pensions scheme endorsed the framework proposals we have negotiated, paving the way for more in depth talks.
 
“Our health members gave their support to talks on the NHS scheme entering a final phase, due to end in late January. When we have a final offer, we will take it back to members in a full ballot.
 
“Our action on 30 November got ministers back to the table, since then we have made some real progress. No contribution rises in local government until 2014 will be a real boost for many families that are hard hit by the pay freeze, and struggling to cope. The overwhelming majority of NHS scheme members won’t face contribution rate rises in 2012.
 
“We will continue to campaign to secure the best possible deal, which our members will then be consulted on. Should negotiations fail, our industrial action ballot, which remains live, gives us the option to take more strike action.”   

Negotiations on the local government scheme are due to run until April 2012.

These proposals include:

• Removal of essential user car allowances
• Reducing mileage allowance to 45p per mile
• Charging for car parking at work
• Removing subsistance allowance
• Removing/rationalising shift/weekend/unsocial hours allowances

It is imperative as many members as possible attend so the everyone ‘s view is heard.

Make your attendance a priority.  

A poster is available for downloading – 19jan2012specialgeneralmeeting

The Government and the LGA have accepted that the LGPS is different from the other public sector pensions schemes because it is a funded scheme and has assets of around £140 billion at current prices.

There are some key points of agreement between the LGPS unions and the LGA – localgovtpensionschemenewsletter20dec2011

(12/12/11) 30 November was an historic day – millions of public service workers uniting to say: “Enough is enough” in reply to the attack on their pensions.

But where do we go from here?

The strike had a purpose: to get ministers to negotiate meaningfully.

And we’ve already had an effect. Since 30 November, central negotiations, led by Dave Prentis, have resumed and negotiations are taking place around the specific schemes.

Meanwhile, the TUC public sector liaison group meets on 15 December to assess the strike and plan the way forward, while UNISON’s own service group executives will meet in January. The union also plans to hold its third pensions summit in January.

And we need to keep the momentum going among members after 30 November: keep campaigning and highlighting the pensions issue, get recruiting, and prepare for further action if necessary.

But what is happening in the three main pension schemes that affect UNISON members?

In local government, the strike has led to new developments in negotiations over the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) for England, Wales and Northern Ireland.

Meetings are taking place before Christmas with the Local Government Association (LGA) and Local Government Employers (LGE) to attempt to agree principles and a timetable for negotiations early in 2012 that would defer any change within the LGPS until 2014.

At the time of going to press, if the Treasury and the Department for Communities and Local Government (DCLG) agree the principles and timetable, it would allow negotiations to cover both short and long-term changes to the LGPS and, in the process, seek to minimise contribution increases.

There is consensus between the employers and unions that the £900m ‘tax’ demanded by Eric Pickles would lead to opt-outs from the scheme and possibly undermine some individual funds within it.

In the months leading up to 30 November, UNISON, GMB and Unite – on behalf of the 11 LGPS unions – had met the leaders of the political groupings within the Local Government Association and representatives of the Local Government Employers to explore the possibility for a joint response to the coalition’s demand for £900m short-term ‘savings’ from the LGPS.

UNISON and the other unions have consistently argued that the scheme has made £2bn savings since 2008, that pay freezes and job losses have also led to savings and that the 23% of the value of the LGPS generated by investments should be set against any ‘savings’.

While there was agreement that the savings could not be met from a scheme within which 70% of members earn less than £21,000 a year without leading to opt-outs and undermining the scheme itself, it was not possible to agree a way forward.

The LGA and LGE therefore put forward proposals of their own, which are now part of the formal consultation on short-term savings being run by the DCLG, with a deadline of 6 January.

Since then, there have also been meetings of the DCLG policy review group, within which there has been consensus between employers, actuaries, fund managers and the unions that the short-term savings required by Mr Pickles could not be delivered without potentially harming the scheme, meaning alternative ways of realising the ‘savings’ need to be looked for.

Both DCLG and LGA proposals contain changes to the accrual rate to achieve part of the savings.

The ‘reference scheme’ for longer-term changes to all public sector pensions from 2015 put forward by Danny Alexander calls for an accrual rate of 1/60 – the same as the current LGPS – linked to a career-average scheme.

It also provides for protection of benefits and retirement ages for those within 10 years of retirement and some tapered protection for those just outside of the 10-year limit.

UNISON and the other LGPS unions want to make sure that any changes to the LGPS are of equivalent value to members as other public-sector schemes and that the specific features of its membership, pay levels and funding are reflected in any changes; including keeping the Fair Deal on Pensions.

We therefore sought – and have agreement from Mr Alexander and the DCLG – to negotiate on the short and long-term issues together, to find solutions that are appropriate to the LGPS membership and the structure of the scheme itself.

In health, on 6 December the government announced that it was formally consulting on increases to the pension contributions in year one, which raise the cap at which staff start to pay increased contributions from £15,000 to £26,557.

Anyone who is earning less than this will have no increase in their pension contributions for 2012. This covers around 48% of all NHS workers and a much higher percentage of UNISON members.

While this is good news, and protects the lowest paid, it is only for one year and is only one element of the negotiations.

Discussions are currently focused on the accrual rate, the length of protection, how pensions will be uprated and retirement age. The unions want to minimise the impact of any changes on existing scheme members while keeping the scheme fair for younger staff and new joiners, and keep the Fair Deal.

At the start of these negotiations, accrual rates of 1/100 were being talked about – now we have a much more realistic figure of at least 1/60.

The government has the same protections for those near retirement as in the LGPS, and the unions are examining whether this can be extended.

The government seems intent on moving from final salary to career average (CARE) schemes across the public sector.

UNISON has never been opposed to CARE schemes in principle as these often benefit women and lower-paid members.

However, the type and value of the CARE scheme is important: various models are being considered for the NHS pay bands.

We still believe the timetable set by the government is unrealistic and unfair. We are making some progress in arguing that it is important to get this right rather than rush – but the government remains committed to and end-of-year deadline.

In the Civil Service pension scheme, 30 November reinforced the hand of negotiators working on behalf of members.

There have been regular meetings between unions and the Cabinet Office about the future of the scheme.

At the time of writing, there have been no proposals put forward, but discussions have centred around something similar to the existing career-average ‘Nuvos’ scheme for new starters.

(InFocus, January 2012)

Guardian Article Wed 14 December 2011

Public sector strikes announcement postponed until new year

This article was published on guardian.co.uk at 09.08 GMT on Wednesday 14 December 2011. It was last modified at 09.36 GMT on Wednesday 14 December 2011.

Public sector strikes – tens of thousands of people around the UK joined rallies on 30 November over proposed cuts to pensions. Photograph: Felix Clay

Trade union leaders will hold back from announcing public sector strike dates on Thursday as they consider their next step after mass walkouts on 30 November.

Representatives from 24 unions that took part in the biggest outbreak of industrial action in three decades are due to meet at the Trades Union Congress headquarters amid signs of progress in talks over pension reforms. More than 1 million public sector employees, from teachers to street cleaners, went on strike last month over changes to pensions for health, civil service, education and local government workers.

Dave Prentis, leader of the largest public sector union, Unison, indicated that a new walkout schedule will not be announced after the meeting after declaring the organisation remained “committed to exhausting all negotiations” with government officials and employers.

He added: “Both in local government and the NHS we are making significant progress in the talks. We are calling all our key activists together in early January to look at what progress has been made in the talks and to decide on the next steps in our campaign for a fair pension deal.”

The Public and Commercial Services union, which represents civil servants including border control officers, will push for action in the new year if there is no concrete progress in talks, in the belief that the spectre of the 30 November strikes was crucial to the government announcing a number of concessions weeks before the walkouts.

A senior trade union source said negotiations for the four schemes had picked up pace since the November strikes and are “at a stage of serious engagement”, although talks are “moving at different speeds.”

It is understood that negotiations over the local government pension scheme are most advanced, with unions and the Local Government Association, which represents more than 370 councils in England and Wales, agreeing a set of principles and timeframe for thrashing out a deal. However, that outline is awaiting approval from ministers, with the government adamant that talks must conclude by the end of the month. Ministers are also seeking “heads of agreement” for changes in each pension scheme by the time parliament rises on 20 December, according to union sources.

Brian Strutton, GMB’s national officer for public services and a negotiator in local government talks, said: “Negotiations became serious after 30 November, having stalled before then. We have made a lot of progress but it is now up to the government whether they want to sign up to a negotiated way forward which, I think, will lead to the sort of reform that the government wants and be equally fair to public sector workers.”

The government is implementing a wide range of reforms to pensions including switching the uprating of pensions from the higher RPI rate of inflation to the lower CPI rate, linking the public sector retirement age to the rising state pension age and transferring employees on final-salary schemes to career-average schemes.

Furthermore, the government has imposed a 3.2% increase in pension contributions, which will come from staff pay packets, beginning with a rise of £1.1bn in April, followed by increases of £1.1bn and £0.6bn over the following two years.

Unions view this as a tax designed to reduce the deficit rather than put pensions on a stable long-term footing. Last month Prentis said further industrial action could take place in the runup to the first round of contribution increases in April, with the possibility that protests and strikes will be split into regions or employment groups.

A spokesperson for the Cabinet Office, which is leading negotiations along with the Treasury, said the government “hoped” to reach a deal by the year end, adding: “There are intensive discussions on a scheme by scheme basis, and these talks are progressing well. The government remains committed to the talks and we are encouraged that the trade unions are engaging in discussions, rather than looking to take further irresponsible strike action. The action last month reinforced our belief that striking does not achieve anything.”