Commenting on some of the detailed proposals in the Pensions Commission report published today (Wednesday), TUC Midlands Regional Secretary Roger McKenzie said:

Pension age and retirement

'We remain opposed to any proposal to increase the state pension age that would make manual workers and the poor worse off. They should not have to pay for a new pensions settlement. We will be studying in detail the option to allow 65 year olds to claim means tested pension credit as this could provide some help for those who would lose out the most from this proposal.

'We welcome the proposal to scrap a formal default retirement age. We think this should be a matter for individual choice. But if people are to work longer then we will need major changes in employer attitudes, and new routes through part-time and changed job roles to a flexible retirement.

Basic state pension

'The Commission's proposal for linking the basic state pension to earnings once again is extremely welcome. You cannot build a long-term pensions system on mass means-testing of pensioners, and making the basic state pension a sure foundation for all is the right approach. While we would want to see an increase in the basic state pension to pensions credit level, we recognise that a reformed state second pension will do this for many people.

'Making a universal pension based on residence retrospective was always tricky. Giving a higher state pension as of right to the over-75s is an effective way to help many of the poorest women pensioners, and those put off means-tested benefits.'

State Second Pension

'The Commission is right to keep the State Second Pension. The argument to scrap it because of its complexity may be superficially attractive, but it would have hit those on average and below average incomes hard. We warmly welcome the improved credit system for carers. The precise future of State Second Pension and how it fits with the rest of the pensions system is now a key issue for debate.'

Women

'We believe the proposals in the report will be good for women. The Commission is very clear that a new pensions settlement should serve those facing poverty in retirement - and this will help women simply because they are by far the most likely to be poor when they retire. A quick boost to pensions for the over 75s will do much to help today's poorest pensioners, and the rest of the report will help those retiring in future years.

Compulsion

'The TUC has been at the forefront of those arguing for compulsion on employers. Their retreat from providing decent pensions is one of the factors fuelling the poor pensions prospects of today's workforce. This is therefore a major victory for TUC campaigning. Government should listen to those employers - like the EEF, the manufacturers' organisation - who have backed compulsion as the best way to stop good employers being undercut by the bad.

'While we would have preferred a system closer to the Australian approach and with higher contributions, we recognise the Commission has made a recommendation that has the potential to build wide support, and cannot be accused of being any kind of incentive to close existing schemes.

'Although part of the technical detail, the proposals on tax relief will give a real boost to part-time women workers who are often the biggest losers in today's pensions system.'

Overall response

TUC Midlands Regional Secretary Roger Mckenzie said:

'This is a bold and hard headed report. It sets politicians - and all of us involved in the pensions debate - a real challenge to create the consensus needed to implement its radical agenda.

'Of course in such a detailed report there are proposals that we do not like, and other areas where we would have liked it to go further.

'We remain opposed to any proposal to increase the state pension age that would make manual workers and the poor worse off. They should not have to pay for a new pensions settlement.

'But the clear majority of the conclusions are undoubtedly progressive, and meet the tests we set in advance.

'Linking the basic state pension to earnings and introducing compulsory employer contributions are both extremely welcome. The report clearly offers women a better pensions deal.

'No one group was ever going to have all its policies adopted today, and there are no doubt some proposals that can be improved. But there are no pain free solutions to pensions. Employers, employees and the state, through tax revenues, must all play their part.

'The great danger now is that a combination of vested interests who did not get their way, opposition politicians looking to make mischief and an underestimate of voters' willingness to back radical policies kicks today's report into the long grass.

'The real divide is between those who want to use today's report to build a new fair pensions settlement and those who do not.'

NOTES TO EDITORS:

- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk/midlands

Contacts:

Media enquiries: Roger McKenzie, T: 0121 263 4454; M: 07879 497 291;

E: rmckenzie@tuc.org.uk; Alan Weaver, T: 0121 263 4454; M: 07771 778 694;

E: aweaver@tuc.org.uk

Press release (900 words) issued 30 Nov 2005

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Reacting to the announcement from the Prime Minister today (Tuesday) that there is to be an energy review, TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:

'We welcome this energy review. Rising prices, fears for supply security and climate change make it urgent, and we stand ready to make a full contribution.

'We need a long-term energy policy framework, and cannot simply depend on imported gas. The Government should consider incentives for investment to ensure early development of new generating capacity in all lower-carbon generation technologies, including renewables, nuclear and clean coal."

NOTES TO EDITORS:

- All TUC press releases can be found at www.tuc.org.uk

- Register for the TUC's press extranet : a service exclusive to journalists wanting to access pre?embargo releases and reports from the TUC. Visit www.tuc.org.uk/pressextranet

- A series of TUC rights leaflets are available on our website and from the know your rights line 0870 600 4 882. Lines are open every day from 9am-9pm. Calls are charged at the national rate.

Contacts:

Media enquiries: Liz Chinchen T: 020 7467 1248; M: 07778 158175; E: media@tuc.org.uk

Press release (200 words) issued 29 Nov 2005

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Eight out of ten of the UK's top companies provide directors with pensions that can pay out in full at 60 and are worth, on average, 26 times those of most employees.

The TUC's analysis of the annual reports of over 50 of the UK's leading companies published today (Thursday) shows that 98 per cent of their final salary pension schemes for executives have a normal retirement age of less than 65. In fact, in a little under 80 per cent of the company schemes all directors could retire at 60 without their pension being reduced. Only in one company do some - though not all - executives have to work until they are 65.

The research also shows that directors' final salary pensions are most likely to build up twice as fast (1/30ths) as the most common rate for employees in final salary schemes (1/60ths), meaning that it takes twice as many years for staff to reach a full pension as it does directors.

TUC research shows that directors of the UK's 100 most important companies have amassed pensions worth a total of ?.9 billion which, on average, would pay out ?167,000 a year if claimed now. This is over 26 times the national average of ?129 a week (?6,344 a year) and over 30 times the average public sector pension.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said:

'Britain's boardrooms are secure in a pensions ivory tower. Top bosses can expect to live long retirements on luxury pensions that are far more generous than their employees can expect. They should stop lecturing the rest of us on how we should get smaller pensions from a higher retirement age. After these revelations it is hard to see how their voice can carry much weight in the pensions debate.'

Attitudes of business to pensions reform

On 1 November The Times newspaper published excerpts of a letter from 16 business leaders to the Prime Minister accusing him of setting "a poor example to the country" by agreeing principles of public sector pension reform with trade unions that allow current staff to claim pensions at 60 but new staff, joining from as early as next year, to have a normal pension age of 65.

The Times reported that the letter was written by John Sunderland, President of the CBI, and co-signed by businessmen including Martin Broughton, chairman of British Airways, Stuart Rose, chief executive of Marks & Spencer, Nick Land, chairman of Ernst & Young, and Paul Walsh, chief executive of Diageo. The Times report said: 'Mr Sunderland spelt out the "strength of feeling that exists within the business community" about the growing disparity between public and private sector pension provision. He wrote that, although the letter's 16 co-signatories alone employed more than half a million workers, "many more, large and small alike, have expressed to me their deep concern". Mr Sunderland, who is also executive chairman of Cadbury Schweppes, told Mr Blair that he was encouraging a "divisive two-tier pension system" that represented a "bad deal for the general taxpayer". "A 'them' and 'us' attitude in our society is precisely what the country does not need," he wrote. He urged the Prime Minister to "give these matters your urgent attention".'

Speaking at the TUC Congress in September 2003, Digby Jones, CBI Director General, said: '...we know business must be mindful of the need to set a good example when it comes to, for example, salaries and pensions.'

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As speculation mounts today (Thursday) over the contents of the report of the Turner Commission on the future of pensions, the TUC has published a checklist against which it will judge the final report.

TUC General Secretary, Brendan Barber, said:

'No one lobby group can expect to get its whole submission accepted by the Turner Commission. Nor should we get bogged down in arguments about detail where there may be more than one way forward.

'So we will judge the Turner Commission report on how well it matches our broad principles and objectives. That is why we are publishing the checklist we will use to gauge whether the report will move us in the right direction.

'But there is an even bigger test to be passed. And that is the one the Commission will set the government. Will ministers have the political will to make the radical changes necessary to solve the pensions crisis? Will they take the measures necessary to ensure that the millions of people in work today can look forward to a decent pensions when they retire?'

The TUC Turner tests:

Will the report ...

1) have recommendations radical enough to deliver a new pensions settlement? Is it up to the job?

2) end the second-class treatment of women by the pensions system, and make the state pension universal?

3) make the poor, and those doing heavy stressful jobs, make an unfair contribution to a new pensions settlement by increasing the state pension age?

4) reduce means-testing in the pensions system by lifting the level of the state pension above the poverty line?

5) let pensioners share in growing prosperity by saying that the state pension should be linked to earnings once again?

6) support the role of the state in providing a pension above the basic state pension, particularly for the low paid without alternative arrangements?

7) recognise that a new pensions settlement needs a new tax settlement that will reduce tax breaks for the well off?

8) recognises that the only effective way to extend saving is to extend compulsion within the pensions system so that all employers face obligations to contribute to employee savings.

Contacts:

Media enquiries: Ben Hurley T: 020 7467 1248; M: 07881 622416 ; E: bhurley@tuc.org.uk Liz Chinchen T: 020 7467 1248; M: 07778 158175; E: media@tuc.org.uk

Skills for Life and media enquiries: Dan Ashley T: 020 7467 1248; M: 07880 504846; E: dashley@tuc.org.uk

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The TUC today (Thursday 20 Octoner 2005) expressed grave concern at the latest prosecutions statistics published by the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

The figures reveal that despite hundreds being killed and thousands injured at work every year the number of negligent employers being prosecuted for health and safety crimes has dropped, as has the amount of enforcement notices issued forcing employers to make their workplaces safer.

Figures published in the HSE Offences and Penalties Report show a 35 per cent fall in prosecutions of employers in the past three years and a 25 per cent drop in enforcement notices served in the last year. And the TUC is concerned that it's not just the HSE which is letting employers off the hook.

Local authorities are also taking fewer local companies to court as a result of accidents and injuries sustained at work. In the past ten years, council prosecutions have dropped by 50 per cent and there has been a 75 per cent fall in the number of enforcement notices issued.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'Last year 220 workers were killed in the UK, over 150,000 people were injured and 2.2 million people are suffering from an illness that was either caused or made worse by their work. All these accidents, injuries and diseases are avoidable and most are caused by employers ignoring health and safety laws.

'We don't want to see HSE inspectors spending all their time in court, but at the moment it's very easy for employers who've put their employees' health and safety at risk to escape punishment.

'If the UK is to get to grips with its extremely poor safety record, we have to see more inspectors out there visiting workplaces, more targeted prosecutions of offending employers and more use of enforcement notices. The Government should also provide the HSE with extra resources so that it can do its job properly.'

'Good employers have nothing to fear but the bad ones do. TUC research has shown that when an enforcement notice is issued, over two thirds of employers not only comply, but also end up reviewing health and safety practices elsewhere in their organisation.

'Without a doubt, enforcement is the single most effective tool the HSE has at its disposal for improving health and safety standards in UK companies and organisations. When the Health and Safety Commission launched its new strategy for improving workplace health and safety last year it promised that enforcement would still be a key part of this. Today's report shows that this is clearly not the case.'

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