GOVERNMENT plans to ‘asset-strip’ the £28 billion Royal Mail pension scheme and plough the money into cutting the budget deficit were yesterday condemned by a leading postal worker as ‘pension robbery on a massive scale that puts Robert Maxwell in the shade’.
However, the leaderships of both the postal workers’ union, the CWU, and the Royal Mail managers’ union, Unite, welcomed the move.
Royal Mail pension fund assets and liabilities are set to be transferred to the Treasury next month as a prelude to the privatisation of the Royal Mail.
The transfer of the £28 billion of assets will result in an immediate reduction in the budget deficit, whereas the pension fund’s £37.5bn liabilities, in contrast, would only show up in the deficit over the next 20 to 30 years.
Their transfer to the taxpayer forms an essential part of the government’s Royal Mail privatisation plan, which was agreed by Parliament in 2011 as part of the Postal Services Act.
Now Royal Mail can be offered up for sale to the privateers with no pension liabilities.
The Communication Workers Union (CWU), claimed yesterday: ‘This will protect the pensions of postal workers who have faithfully paid contributions for decades.
‘We’ve consistently argued that the government has a moral obligation to take on the pension deficit, partly as owner of the company and for allowing Royal Mail to take a 13-year contributions holiday.
‘They laughed in our face when we suggested it so it’s been a long journey getting here.’
News Line asked a CWU spokeswoman if the union was concerned about asset stripping.
She replied: ‘Our concern is about the securing of the pensions of postal workers. There is a shortfall threatening the viability of the pension scheme and the Crown guarantee is a promise.’
Asked if the CWU was concerned in the event of the UK economy going the way of the Greek economy, she replied: ‘There are a lot of ifs, but the strongest guarantee you can get is what we’ve got from the government.’
Asked whether she was concerned that the move was a prelude to privatisation, she replied: ‘We remain opposed to privatisation and it’s no secret that the government wants to privatise Royal Mail, but we’ve been told by the government they won’t be privatising Royal Mail this year and we think it really is a success for our campaign that pensions are protected.’
Ian Tonks, national officer for Unite, which represents over 9,000 managers across the Royal Mail Group, also welcomed the move, claiming: ‘This proposal will allow Royal Mail to concentrate on modernisation of the service in the knowledge that the pension scheme is secure.’
Rob Bolton, Delivery Unit CWU Rep, South Central No 1, told News Line: ‘The CWU should not be welcoming our pension scheme being taken over by the government, but should be opposing it instead.
‘This is pension robbery on a massive scale that puts Robert Maxwell in the shade.
‘Basically, what is happening is our pension scheme is being plundered to pay off some of the national debt, with no guarantees that our pension rights will be honoured.
‘You only have to see what is happening to the public sector pensions in Greece to see that the same could happen here.
‘No, we should be fighting to retain some sort of control over our own pension scheme as well as fighting against the privatisation of Royal Mail.
‘The CWU leaders have no right to agree to this robbery of our pensions. They should be organising our members to fight these attacks.’
