Unite and States' agree new pension deal

Tuesday 06 February 2018

Unite the Union has reached an agreement with the States of Guernsey over the pension option for its members.

The changes put in place by the States in March 2016 saw the usual automatic lump sum payments on retirement scrapped from its pension scheme.

The new proposals will see the State pension age revert to 65, and the reinstatement of the lump sum payment.

Peter Hughes, the Unite regional secretary with responsibility for Guernsey, said: "This is good news for the States of Guernsey workforce and would not have been possible had it not been for the legal action launched by Unite and the resolve of our members.

"Employees of the States of Guernsey are the backbone of the island, delivering a whole range of services on which the community relies on. The ‘work until you drop’ pension plans that the States of Guernsey sought to impose on its workforce would have seen some workers forced to work until they were 70 to get their full pension. The plans would have seen automatic lump sum payments scrapped too."

Deputy Jonathan Le Tocq (above), the Policy & Resources Committee member who leads on employment matters, said they were very pleased with the new proposals that had emerged through the mediation process.

He also said the new proposals would not be at a cost to the tax payer:

"Under the arrangements introduced in March 2016 certain qualifying members who transferred from a final salary scheme to the Career Average Revalued Earnings scheme contribute 7% of their salary and accrue an annual pension to become payable between age 67 and age 70 (depending on their State Pension Age)," Deputy Le Tocq said.

"These members will now have the option to transfer to a different CARE scheme in which they will contribute 7.5% of salary from January 2020 and accrue both the annual pension and a lump sum payable from age 65."

Below: More of Deputy Le Tocq's statement.