| Unite local government reps have rejected the “Heads of Agreement” document signed by negotiators last month. They become the second of Unite’s public sector groups to do so. Last week, reps for around 100,000 NHS workers voted against the 19th December proposals. They are due to meet on Wednesday to decide on their next steps in the pensions dispute. The local government pension scheme (LGPS) has been valued at around £140 billion. It has some 4.6 million members and is one of the largest pension schemes in the UK. The average pension payout is around £4,000 a year. In a letter on 20 December, communities secretary Eric Pickles claimed commitments including linking the local government retirement age to the state pension age, a career average pension scheme and introducing an employer cost ceiling of 10.9 per cent, had been agreed when discussions on these issues were still due to take place. Unite General Secretary Len McCluskey said: “Unite’s local authority representatives have lost trust after Eric Pickles let the government’s real agenda out of the bag. “The security of our members in retirement is just too important to leave any space for doubt or mistrust, so the union’s senior representatives in local government have rejected the government’s proposals.” The Unite decision comes at a critical stage for the government because UNISON meets tomorrow afternoon to decide whether to continue negotiations with them on the basis of the heads of agreement document signed in December, and all public sector unions meet at Congress House on Thursday afternoon to agree a way forward. Five unions (NASUWT, NUT, PCS, UCAC and Unite) have refused to sign the head of agreement document, one (UCU) has reserved its position until it receives more information and three (ATL, GMB and Prospect) have signed it. |