pensions saga draws on

Yes, it’s still not resolved and both sides are hardening their positions 🙁

I came home to find the latest company proposals. They even included a copy of their little “this is what your pension would look like” calculator*, which is very nice but ignores many of the considerations that aren’t in favour of their changes. Essentially the proposals mean that to get somewhere close to my current pension I have to give me them an additional 20% of my salary! Yep. 1/5 of my salary just to get to the same conditions I am currently on. Funnily enough I’m not excited by this prospect 🙁

This story has a few rounds left in it yet, but it has been amazing to watch the way it has been reported in the press, internal letters and union newsletters. At this point I’d have to say it’s a draw with the company spin machine in full flow and the unions only just managing to counter it. The press coverage has been mixed, but with many of the papers simply printing company spin verbatim. While I know this takes place, it does reflect poorly on the press and their repeated claims of neutrality.

** The supplied results were actually wrong and assumed that I had done all the things that gave the smallest difference between the current and proposed scheme – further enhancing my feelings that the company spin machine is in full flow. *