The workers at the Grangemouth oil refinery are striking mainly because they want to protect their non-contributory final salary pension plan. These deals are rarer than hen's teeth in the private sector these days, but it's hard to blame the workers for trying to hold on to what they've got.
The Grangemouth owner, Ineos, says that the company simply can't afford to maintain the existing scheme. One reason for that may be that they know they face a growing tax bill to pay for public sector pensions. It's been reported in the last few days that public sector workers will retire with pensions as much as four times larger than the average private sector worker, who is now reliant on a defined contribution plan. What's more, the public sector pension is inflation indexed, no small consideration as the inflation genie seems to be out of the bottle again.
The UK Industry Minister, John Hutton, has criticised the strike as unnecessary and urged the unions to compromise. Hutton is, of course, in line for a non-contributory indexed pension of his own, and there's no sign that he plans to set the Grangemouth workers a good example by giving it up.
No comments:
Post a Comment