Tuesday, June 16, 2009

Local Government Pension Scheme Democracy

This is a short article I wrote for our regional Local Government conference newsletter "London Calling"

Good news at long last about trade member representation on the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS). Following vigorous campaigning by UNISON and many branch pension activists there has been a change in guidance issued by the Government. This has resulted in many Councils finally allowing trade unions to nominate representatives to sit on pension investment panels and committee as full members with voting rights.

There is still a lot to do. Most schemes only allow 1 or 2 trade union reps on - while UNISON argues that there should be 50% ot the total. This is the law for private funded pension schemes. So why are we in the LGPS still being treated as 2nd class? There is plenty of evidence that having members on investment funds improves performance and will help safeguard our pensions. If anyone in London is interested in finding out more about being a LGPS rep then please speak to me

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