Royal Mail in strike threat
Outrage at closure of pension scheme
ROYAL Mail faces the threat of strike action after forcing 90,000 workers to take a hit in retirement.
The privatised postal giant yesterday confirmed plans to press ahead with closing its defined benefit pension scheme.
Royal Mail said a surplus in the pension fund will run out next year and the £400million a year it’s paying in would need to soar to £1billion.
The firm said: “We have concluded that there is no affordable solution to keeping the plan open in its current form. Therefore, the company has come to the decision that the plan will close to future accrual on March 31, 2018, subject to trustee approval.”
The Communication Workers Union said that on average employees face losing up to a third of their future pensions.
For a 50-year-old worker earning £25,000 a year and retiring at 65, this would equate to a loss of £4,392 a year.
Ray Ellis, the union’s acting deputy general secretary, said: “We will not stand by and watch the company abandon the pension promises it made at the time of privatisation.”
Brian Scott, from the Unite union, said: “We will study the implications of today’s announcement very carefully and consider all the options going forward. If we don’t achieve a satisfactory outcome, we can’t rule out an industrial action ballot on this issue.”
It comes after the Mirror revealed earlier this year that Royal Mail boss Moya Green was pocketing a £200,000-a-year pension perk. The company puts £40,000 into the Canadian chief executive’s pension fund. But she also gets a £160,000-a-year pension “allowance” on top.