HSBC and Barclays are paying part-time staff backdated pension payments
following a legal ruling last year.
As many as 17,500 part-time staff at the banks, including those who have
left in the past six months, will have access to the same pension rights as
full-time staff backdated to April 1976.
The move follows a House of Lords ruling last year that meant employers
providing lower pensions for part-timers were guilty of indirect sexual
discrimination as these staff are mainly women.
HSBC has offered all staff equal pension rights since 1992, but is to offer
2,000 part-time staff employed before that date backdated pension payments to
1976. A further 2,000 staff could be eligible.
Len Aspell, head of employee relations at HSBC, suggested other employers
may soon follow its lead. He said: "We have listened to our employers and
Unifi, understood their concerns and delivered an agreement to meet these
expectations.
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As Personnel Today went to press, Barclays confirmed it was backdating the
pension rights of 13,500 former employees and had written to staff who worked
at the bank between 1976 and 1986.
There are currently 60,000 claims lodged by part-time staff from other
sectors – mainly from the public sector.
