Employers have “broken their promise” to share the pensions burden with workers, the TUC general secretary is to tell business leaders today.
Brendan Barber will tell a CBI meeting in London that many people are angry at the move away from final salary schemes.
Hundreds of the schemes closed last year and half of the UK’s biggest employers are no longer offering them to new workers, the TUC claims.
The CBI says employers alone are not to blame for the pensions crisis.
Employers used pension scheme surpluses to take contributions holidays and reductions worth £18.1bn between 1988 and 2003 and were refunded a further £1.2bn, according to Barber.
“The argument ran, if things became tight, the employers would fulfil their part of the bargain and keep the scheme going,” he said. “There was an implicit promise that employers would do the right thing. This promise has been broken.”
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