Senior civil servants to join pensions strike

Tuesday, 15 March 2005 12:00 AM

Senior civil servants will join other public sector staff in taking strike action over Government reforms to civil service pensions.

Sixty-eight per cent of FDA members voted in favour of strike action on a turnout of 52 per cent.

FDA general secretary Jonathan Baume said the move "should send a strong message to Government that even its own managers consider the new pensions plans to be unacceptable and bad for the civil service."

FDA members, which include senior government managers, crown prosecutors, tax inspectors, statisticians and government lawyers, are unhappy at plans to increase the retirement age from 60 to 65 and change the pension scheme for civil servants.

Mr Baume added: "Our members clearly believe civil servants deserve choice over their retirement and pension arrangements. The Government still has not justified scrapping the final salary scheme for existing civil servants. This is not a vote against pension reform. This is a vote against bad pension reform and a contradictory, incoherent pension policy."

A Cabinet Office spokesman expressed disappointment at the result and said constructive dialogue, not strike action, was the way forward.

The ballot comes after members of the PCS union voted on Friday to join local authority staff from Unison, the T&G, Amicus and Ucatt in strike action.

The unions have been in talks with Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott as the Government bids to avert the strike action. After meeting on Thursday talks were described as "constructive" by unions, but further sessions will take place this week.

Unison general secretary Dave Prentis said: "Our members who have paid their pension contributions week in, week out are very angry and are not prepared to accept changes by diktat. The average local government pension is just £3,800 a year - not a 'fat cat' sum. Low pay within councils means low pensions."

Elsewhere, the GMB is awaiting the results of its strike ballot, and teachers' union the NUT is also balloting its members over pensions.

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