Pensions minister Alan Johnson has told trade unions the government will create a ‘proper process’ to negotiate public sector pensions provision, after unions cancelled a public sector-wide strike.
Staff were to take action over plans to raise the retirement age for civil servants to 65, instead of 60, and against proposals to replace the existing final-salary pension scheme with a payment based on their average career earnings.
Johnson said that the government and unions could now move on “in the right spirit of consultation and negotiation…to ensure pension provision is secure and sustainable for a future where increased life expectancy will put ever greater pressure on pension schemes”.
“We have the time to get this right – it is important that we use it,” he said.
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