Union
Amicus is demanding a new law to protect workers pension schemes from
unscrupulous employers.
Speaking
at Labour’s conference in Blackpool today, Amicus joint general secretary Roger
Lyons called for pensions to be given the same legal status as pay.
“Future
pensioners need a law to protect them from the pension thieves," he said.
“A law that protects the deferred pay that pensions represent from predatory
employers. Employers who complain their pensioners are living longer and should
therefore increasingly provide for themselves the financing of their pensions.
“No
one dares say that because people are living longer they should be denied
healthcare, unless they can pay for it themselves.”
Amicus
said fat-cat employers are feathering their nests with money saved from the
closure of final salary schemes and that employer’s organisations are resisting
legislation to protect pension schemes by arguing that the red tape will burden
business.
“We’ve
had enough of the bosses’ whingeing about red tape, and burdens on business,
when they are opposing decency and fairness after a lifetime at work,"
Lyons said.
He
attacked employers for condemning their staff to poverty in old age, saying
they should be "tied up with red tape and paraded through every town in
Britain for destroying the hopes and retirement plans of their employees".
Amicus
wants to see compulsory employer contributions to pension schemes set at a
level high enough to maintain the value of workers retirement income.
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