Prospect raises formal Failure to Agree with Babcock Group boss over pension reforms

Prospect has written to David Lockwood, chief executive of Babcock International Group, to raise a formal Failure to Agree following unsuccessful negotiations over making much-needed improvements to the company’s pension scheme.

All of Prospect’s branches across Babcock jointly developed and submitted the proposals, signalling a unified and urgent need for engagement on pensions reform, but each branch was met with the same message: “we cannot negotiate on pensions” from their local negotiating team.

The letter to David Lockwood states:

“Despite the significance of this coordinated effort and repeated invitations to engage, the company has refused to enter into meaningful dialogue or provide a formal response. This lack of engagement constitutes a failure of the collective bargaining process and has caused considerable concern and disillusionment among Prospect members.”

The members’ concerns include the move away from a Defined Benefit pension scheme, and encompasses:

• An age-based inequality, where newer entrants to the business—particularly younger employees—no longer have access to the more secure and generous DB arrangements previously available.
• A gender-based inequality, given the known structural and occupational patterns in the business. Women, who are disproportionately represented in later-entering cohorts and often in lower-paid roles, have been especially disadvantaged by this change. This raises serious equality concerns under the Equality Act and undermines Babcock’s stated commitments to fairness and inclusion.

The letter continues:

These disparities are not merely technical or historical—they have a real and lasting impact on the financial security of current and future employees, particularly in retirement. Addressing these imbalances requires not only recognition, but a willingness to work with the recognised trade union to find equitable solutions.

Prospect’s Babcock branches are also campaigning for the employer to match 1.5% for every 1% that members contribute to their pensions.

The letter concludes:

Accordingly, Prospect formally registers this collective failure to agree on the April 2025 pension improvement proposals. We remain open and committed to dialogue, and we urge Babcock to reconsider its position and enter the negotiating table in good faith; however, we must also make clear that we reserve the right to pursue all available avenues to challenge this ongoing inequality—through formal dispute resolution processes and, if necessary, through industrial action ballots.