LGPS impasse over – union consultation begins

Following the withdrawal of Tuesday’s letter by DCLG Minister Eric Pickles - which was seen as undermining the framework agreement for taking forward negotiations on the LGPS, UNISON will be consulting on the proposals - which ward off the 1.5% pension contribution increases due to commence next April: http://www.unison.org.uk/asppresspack/pressrelease_view.asp?id=2559

Heather Wakefield, UNISON National Secretary for local government, said: "we are pleased that the agreement on principles and a timeline for more talks on the local government pensions scheme are back on track. They have the green light from government, marking a major step forward in the dispute over public sector pensions. We have always argued that as the local government scheme has funds worth more than £140bn, it should be dealt with in a different way to the other Treasury-backed schemes.

The full agreement – which applies to England & Wales only - can be read here and includes a key principle that in the long term the new scheme ‘can include zero increases in employee contributions for all or the vast majority of members provided overall financial constraints are met’
http://www.local.gov.uk/c/document_library/get_file?uuid=920cb423-6b3a-4a9a-ad2e-664c6ddaf3f2&groupId=10161