Teaching union accepts pension deal

A teaching union has decided to accept the Government's controversial pension reforms, it has been announced.

The Association of Teachers and Lecturers (ATL), which represents 160,000 teachers, said the move followed the results of a poll of members in which 91.6% of respondents voted in favour of the proposals.

ATL president Alice Robinson said: "ATL members are realists. They recognise how tough times are and that the Government is determined not to give any further ground.

"Although the Government's final offer does not give us everything we wanted, it is the best deal we could get in the current economic climate. And members do not want a significantly worse deal imposed on them if they rejected this one."

ATL members took part in November's strike by up to two million public sector workers in protest at the pension changes.

Despite previously striking on pension reforms,
 the ATL has decided to accept the
Government's controversial pension reforms

The announcement means there will not be a repeat of such a huge strike, although leaders of other unions are discussing further walkouts because of continued opposition to the Government's reforms.

Mary Bousted, ATL's general secretary, said: "The pensions talks and negotiations were incredibly tough. The Government did not want to make concessions and we had a hard fight to get a fairer deal for teachers.

"It was only because ATL members, along with the members of six other education unions, were prepared to show their strength of feeling by going on strike and lobbying their MPs that we managed to force the Government to shift its position and start talks to get an improved offer.

"I am really proud of the courage ATL members showed when they took part in the union's first national strike in its 127-year history.

"We are still not happy about the pension contribution rates for 2012 to 2014, on which the Government refused to negotiate. But we will negotiate hard over the rates from 2015 onwards."

©Press Association 2012

Tube workers reject Olympics offer

Leaders of London Underground workers have rejected a pay offer for working during the Olympic Games worth up to £500, it was announced.

The Rail, Maritime and Transport (RMT) union, which represents thousands of Tube staff, said the money was not an adequate reward for being on duty during the event, which will see a huge increase in passengers across the capital for weeks.

The RMT said the offer had been slightly improved to £100 dependent on meeting "customer satisfaction" targets, and extra per shift which could add another £400.

Leaders of Tube workers said a bonus of up to
500 pounds was not an adequate reward
 for being on duty during the Olympics

The union pointed to other deals, including one of £1,100 atDocklands Light Railway which the RMT said could be worth double that amount, and £600 atLondon Overground.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said: "RMT is rejecting this latest Olympics and Paralympics pay offer from LU and we will be meeting with the company again to press our case for a flat-rate, across-the-board payment which recognises the contribution of all staff throughout the high-pressure extended Olympics and Paralympics period and which is free from a whole barrage of strings and caveats.

"Other employers, notably London Overground, Network Rail and most recently DLR, have come up with serious offers and agreements and we expect London Underground to do the same.

"It is well-documented that transport will be the biggest logistical challenge throughout the Olympics period, with massive pressure on staff and services from moving millions of extra passenger journeys around Greater London and the South East.

"All we are calling for is a fair deal for all the staff involved in delivering the colossal transport challenge that we will be facing this summer and the negotiations to achieve that are ongoing."

MoD 'to cut another 3,000 jobs'

Thousands more civilian jobs are to be axed in the Ministry of Defence after a miscalculation on staffing cuts, according to union leaders.

Prospect warned that the MoD was "heading for the cliff edge" over cuts after being told that another 3,000 posts would be axed on top of 25,000 previously announced losses.

The union warned that the job cuts were being "rushed through" and "mismanaged" under plans to save money.

National officer Steve Jary said: "MoD is driving off a cliff, looking over its shoulder at a pack baying for civil service blood. Our members have had enough. Morale could not be lower.

"It is cutting the very people it needs to maintain its role as an intelligent customer and to provide support to our hard-pressed armed forces. It just doesn't make sense. The armed forces needs both the skills and specialisms of those in the civil service coupled with the military capacity provided by our soldiers."

Civilian job cuts by the Ministry of Defence will total
28,000 - three thousand more than originally announced, say unions

The recent strategic defence and security review (SDSR) included plans to cut 25,000 civilian jobs from the MoD before 2015, but union officials said that figure was now 28,000.

The job losses are hitting admin staff as well as engineers and maintenance workers and are three times as severe as cuts to the military, said Prospect. By 2015 there will be 55,000 civilian staff in the MoD, compared with 118,000 in 1997, said the union.

In a recent survey of Prospect members, four out of five said they would leave if they could afford to, which the union said was the direct result of their "vilification" over recent years.

A MoD spokesman said: "Each year, we review our plans to take account of changes over the previous 12 months and to ensure that we have the right equipment and manning levels to meet the future needs of our armed forces as agreed in the strategic defence and security review.

"Final decisions have yet to be taken but this annual process rightly considers the status of all our key programmes to ensure the continued coherence and balance of the whole programme."


©Press Association

PM 'interested' in Estuary airport

The Government is getting "increasingly interested" in the idea of a new airport in the Thames Estuary, London mayor Boris Johnson has said.

Mr Johnson already firmly backs a new "Boris Island" airport and architect Lord Foster has produced plans for a £50 billion airport on the Isle of Grain in Kent.

With a third runway ruled out at Heathrow, the Government is set to include the Thames Estuary option in a consultation on UK aviation this spring.

Prime Minister David Cameron is said to be growing keener on a Thames Estuary airport plan.

On BBC Radio 4's Today programme, Mr Johnson said: "I think that where we are is that the Government is increasingly interested in this idea. I genuinely believe that they see not just the overwhelming aviation argument and the argument from international competitiveness in making sure that Britain has a hub airport that is viable for the long-term future."

But Mick Rix, the GMB union's civil aviation industry national officer, said a Thames Estuary plan was "plain daft" and called on all political parties to reopen the issue of Heathrow's third runway.

An architect's impression of how the Thames Estuary Airport could look

A Department for Transport spokesman said: "No decisions have been taken. As the Chancellor made clear in his autumn statement, we will explore all the options for maintaining the UK's aviation hub status with the exception of a third runway at Heathrow.

"The Government will consult on a sustainable framework for UK aviation this spring, at which time we will set out our long-term plans for the sector."

Colin Matthews, chief executive of airport operator BAA, which runs Heathrow, told the Today programme: "An island airport is very long and very expensive. Even if it is agreed, it will be decades away. We need jobs and we need growth in this economy today."

Having scrapped Labour's plans for a third Heathrow runway, the coalition Government had, originally, ruled out expansion at any south east England airport. Chancellor George Osborne's Autumn Statement, however, indicated that only the Heathrow option was off the table.

©Press Association 2012

PCS WARNS OF NEW PENSIONS ACTION

Leaders of the biggest Civil Service union today confirmed their rejection of the Government's final offer on public sector pensions and called for fresh industrial action if improvements are not offered.

The executive of the Public and Commercial Services union (PCS) also warned of legal action if the union is excluded from any future negotiations.

PCS said unions representing around a million workers in the Civil Service, education, local government and health, had either rejected or refused to sign up to the Government's offer.

Teaching unions have refused to go along with the proposed deal while sections of Unite have rejected it, as well as the PCS.

There had been no movement on the core issues since last November's strike by up to two million workers, said the PCS executive, which agreed that further co-ordinated action should be organised unless more talks are held.

General secretary Mark Serwotka said: "From the very start ministers have quite obviously tried to suffocate the pensions talks, to bully and mislead, and to impose their will on millions of civil servants, teachers, council staff and health workers.

"We have consistently called for proper negotiations on the key issues of paying more and working longer for less, but the Government has refused at every point, leaving us with no choice but to oppose what is nothing more than a political attempt to make the least culpable pay the highest price for the failings of the banks.

"We have told ministers we expect to be included in any future discussions. But we are clear that, with no significant movement since two million public servants took strike action together on November 30, further co-ordinated industrial action will be necessary to stop these unfair and entirely unnecessary plans."

Other unions have decided to put the offer to a ballot of members or to continue discussions with a view to holding a vote on whether to end the bitter dispute.

Unions involved in the long-running dispute will meet tomorrow to discuss their next move.

A Cabinet Office spokesman said: "The decision by the PCS remains disappointing.

"It is even more disappointing when the leader of the PCS union did not turn up to a single one of the 14 formal meetings with Civil Service unions to discuss the pension reforms.

"The talk of more strike action by the PCS will not achieve anything.

"We welcome the news from those unions that have said they will continue with pension discussions on the basis of the heads of agreement, with a view to securing a final proposal that can be put to their members.

"These heads of agreements represent affordable long-term pension reform which is both fair to the Civil Service workforce and to the taxpayer."

A PCS spokesman replied: "What is disappointing is that, instead of talking to us about the key issues, the Cabinet Office is continuing to peddle half-truths at the same time as threatening to exclude us from future discussions."

Meanwhile, leaders of 25,000 Unite members in the Ministry of Defence and other Government departments rejected the pensions offer today.

General secretary Len McCluskey said: "It is clear from the decisions of the three executive committees representing our public sector members that the current proposals are unfair.

"The message to ministers is that the wide-scale protests on November 30 highlighted the serious concerns that public sector employees have about being forced to pay more, work longer and receive less when they retire.

"Unite again calls on ministers to enter into real, genuine and meaningful negotiations to reach a fair and equitable solution."


©Press Association 2012