Unions issue writ over lost pension rights and broken promises Rupert Jones Monday November 3, 2003 The Guardian
Two trade unions are today launching legal action against the government over a row involving hundreds of steelworkers who face having their promised pension entitlement snatched away. Amicus and steelworkers' union ISTC are to serve a writ on the government over what they claim was its "failure to protect workers' pensions". The unions said this would begin a process that would see the government being taken to the European court of justice. The dispute concerns defunct steel company ASW - the most notable example of a firm that has gone bust, jeopardising the pensions of hundreds of employees. The plight of workers at ASW and other firms prompted ministers recently to announce plans for a pensions protection fund to provide a safety net for workers hit by the double blow of their company going bust and too little money in the pot to pay promised benefits. But the new rules will not be applied retrospectively, so they will not help the thousands of workers who have already lost out on pensions and benefits. ASW went into receivership last year and most of the 1,000-plus staff at its plants in Cardiff and Sheerness, Kent, have been made redundant. Workers seem likely to receive a maximum of 40-45% of their pension entitlement. The unions claim ministers failed to introduce adequate protection for workers' pensions in the event of their employers going bust, as required under the 1980 European insolvency directive. Michael Leahy, the general secretary of the ISTC, Paul Talbot, the assistant general secretary of Amicus, and former ASW workers were today due to deliver a "letter of intent" to pensions minister Malcolm Wicks at the Department for Work and Pensions in Whitehall. The case is likely to be heard in the high court early in 2004, when counsel for the unions will request it be transferred to the European court for a hearing at the earliest possible date, said a spokesman. The Department for Work and Pensions said the unions had wanted the department "to come back to them at a set time". A spokesman added: "We are still looking at the proposals put forward to us." ==================================== To this day, no one has come up with a set of rules for originality. There aren't any. [Les Paul]
