Unite to ballot on public sector pensions

The union Unite will ballot its 250,000 members in the public sector for industrial action in defence of public service pensions.

Unite represents workers in the NHS, local government, higher and further education, and central government departments.

Unite general secretary, Len McCluskey said: “Unite, along with other public sector unions, will ballot its members in the public sector for industrial action.

“The union movement has taken this step with reluctance, but we have been faced with a government that refuses to negotiate in good faith.

“Public sector workers, many of them lowly paid, are being relentlessly and unfairly targeted by the government. With their retirement incomes under threat, they have been pushed into a corner and are being forced to take this action.”

He continued: “Unite has attended every negotiating session with government ministers since February, but they have been dogged by ministerial bad faith and leaks to the media while negotiations on the individual schemes were continuing.

“Public sector pensions are not ‘gold plated’. Half of public sector pensioners get less than £5,600 a year. In local government, the average pension is £4,000-a-year - for women it is less. Half of women, who have worked in the NHS, receive £3,500-a-year or less.”