Pension talks resume with Cabinet Office

The first joint meeting of the year to discuss changes to the civil service pension scheme was held today with the Cabinet Office.

Representatives of all civil service unions attended a meeting at the Cabinet Office as part of the programme of scheme-specific negotiations on the Principal Civil Service Pension Scheme.

It was the first discussion since the controversial heads of agreement proposals for different public sector schemes were published by the government on 15 December.

“Both sides agreed we would try to complete the talks as soon as possible,” said deputy general secretary Dai Hudd. The next meeting will be held in the week beginning 30 January.

Hudd added that until the talks come to a conclusion it was agreed they should continue on a without prejudice basis. A full report will be made to the meeting of Prospect’s Civil Service Sector Executive, to be held this Friday 20 January.

Earlier, meeting as the National Trade Union Committee for the civil service, all the unions held positive discussions about the state of play on pay, jobs and facility time as well as the pension negotiations, said Hudd.

It was agreed that general secretary Paul Noon, who chairs the NTUC, should meet in the near future with the new head of the civil service, Sir Bob Kerslake, to put forward the NTUC’s concerns.