Royal Mail pensions' closure 'a cause for serious concern', says Unite
Today's (Thursday 13 April) announcement that the Royal Mail will close its pension plan in its current form is 'a cause for concern for the dedicated workforce'', Unite, the country's largest union, said.
In January, the Royal Mail said it was consulting with the trade unions about the future of the plan from April 2018.
Unite officer for the Royal Mail Brian Scott said: “This is a cause for serious concern for a hardworking and dedicated workforce.
“The announcement is to close the two current sections at the end of March 2018 and the important part will be the replacement scheme which we are in ongoing discussions about.
“The Royal Mail Pension Plan (RMPP) is not closing in its entirety as the replacement pension scheme will embrace part of that. It is very likely that it will still be a different form of the current defined benefit scheme.
“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.
“We will be consulting our members closely on the next steps in the coming days and weeks.”
The company statement 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 31 March 2018, subject to trustee approval.”
Unite has about 6,000 members working for the Royal Mail that is now a privately-owned company, following its controversial sell-off by the coalition government after five centuries of state ownership.
