Barnsley Trades Union Council have organised a rally on the 30th November to demonstrate that public sector workers from all sectors will not give up their pension rights without a fight.
The Rally supported by UNISON, GMB, UCU, NUT, PCS and Unite unions will start with members assembling at Churchfields from 9:30 am. We will then march through the town to rally in Peel Square at 10:00 am. A number of union speakers are arranged.
Many members then intend to catch trains to Sheffield to support the major TUC rally that commences at 12:00 noon from Barkers Pool (City Hall).
We welcome all members to join us to demonstrate that the governments plans for us to pay more, work longer and get less pension when we retire are not acceptable.
Women will lose out
The TUC published analysis recently that shows more than 800,000 low paid public sector workers – 9 out of ten of them women – could lose out despite a government commitment to protect low earners from pension contribution increases.
The government is seeking an additional £2.8bn a year in contributions from members of public service pension schemes by 2014-15, phased in over the next three years. This is an average of 3.2% of pay, roughly a 50% increase on the contributions currently paid by many in the schemes.
The Treasury has said that those public service workers who earn less than £15,000 will not face any increase in the contribution rates they pay. But there is a very important caveat in that promise, which is that this is based on FTE: full time equivalent earnings.
For example, if an experienced nurse or teacher has an FTE salary of £28,000, but they work half-time and so their actual pay is around £14,000, they will be classed as earning £28,000 for the purposes of calculating their pension contributions.
The TUC’s figures show that 806,000 people are caught out in this way - 12.5% of public sector employees. And it is low-paid women who are overwhelmingly the ones affected, making up 90%, (732,000) of those caught in the trap
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