NHS Employers consults staff over pensions for part-time workers

Employers in the NHS are being urged to submit their views on the pension rights of part-time workers in the health service.

Department of Health (DoH) lawyers have approached NHS Employers over employment tribunal litigation arising from the so-called Preston case, which in 2001 ruled that part-timers might be able to claim pension rights as far back as 1976.

The consultation exercise examines the issue of when part-time workers should be compensated for exclusion from the NHS Pension scheme between 1988 and 1991.

The DoH said workers should only be compensated if they promptly opted in and joined the scheme when it was opened up to part-time workers.