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Fair pensions for all
Keep the pressure up
The fight to protect teachers’ pensions and establish fair pensions for all continues. Nick Kirby outlines the latest developments.
NUT Conference in April endorsed the Executive’s decision to reject the Government’s proposed final agreement on pensions and continue to oppose teachers paying more, working longer and getting less.
The NUT will not accept that teachers should work until they are 68, pay 50 per cent more for their pensions by 2014-15 and get less in retirement. We are not alone in rejecting the proposals. Other unions that have not accepted include the ASCL, EIS, INTO, NAHT, NASUWT, SSTA and UCU in teaching and PCS, Unite, the BMA and Nipsa in other public sector schemes. Together we can challenge the Government.
Our campaign has been built on the strength of our membership. You have played a magnificent role in defending teachers’ pensions and fair pensions for all, particularly through the national strikes on 30 June and 30 November and the London strike of 28 March.
April’s pension contribution increase has by now fed through into your pay. The pay freeze means that everyone has had an actual pay cut – £29 a month for a teacher on the top of the upper pay scale in England and Wales, and £48 a month in Inner London. This contribution increase is raising £300 million this year for the Government.
This is just the start. There will be more pension contribution rises in April 2013 and April 2014. The average pension contribution by April 2014 will be 9.6 per cent. This means an extra £74 a month from the take-home pay for a teacher on UPS3 in England and Wales and £123 a month extra in Inner London.
The Government plans another pay freeze for teachers in September 2012 and a sub-inflation 1 per cent rise in September 2013. Government plans for ‘local pay’ indicate that teachers in some parts of the country could have a pay freeze for many years beyond that. Taken together, this is a seismic attack on teachers’ living standards.
Continued on page 13
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