PARLIAMENTARY COLUMN

Parliamentary column RMT helpline 0800 3763706 :: march 2011 :: RMTnews 9 The Tory-led Coalition continues to hack away at the public sector, especially the terms and conditions of workers, with an ideological zeal that surpasses those launched by Thatcher in the 1980s. The growing consensus in our movement is that the anticipated attack on pensions is the most likely to trigger co-ordinated trade union industrial action. Government plans for an increase in retirement age, increases in employee contributions, replacing final salary pensions with a 'career average' settlement, reductions in the annual increase of all pensions (the switch in indexation from the higher RPI to the lower CPI rate), will seriously devalue pensions and kick-start a race to the bottom in pension provision in the private sector. RMT members will be well aware of the liberties private employers take with workers' pensions. The experience of the ex-Jarvis workforce losing, in some cases, up to 40 per cent of the value of their pension because the company went out of business is a particularly distressing example of the lack of protection that private sector employees have from the vagaries of the free market. Members of RMT's Parliamentary group met ex-Jarvis workers last month and heard the heart- rending accounts of these men who have lost wages, pension entitlements and other basic rights despite government guarantees given at the time of privatisation which have since proved worthless. The group continues to seek a debate to highlight this rank injustice and to demand government action. More widely on the pensions issue, the Trade Union Co- ordinating Group, an alliance of progressive unions has convened meetings of the relevant officials from the ten constituent unions to discuss how best to challenge the change in the indexation of Public Sector Pension Schemes from RPI to CPI, which is estimated to wipe nearly £3 billion out of public sector pensions. To date the official Labour Party line has to been to abstain and it is clear that the trade union movement and all of us as individuals must increase the pressure on the party's leadership. Lord John Hutton, the Blairite former Minister, also published his recommendations to the Con- Libs for reform of public sector pensions. Unsurprisingly, Hutton proposes that the government introduce and complete the reform of all public sector schemes in the next three years which will force staff to pay more and work longer, for less in retirement. This is despite recent agreed changes to public sector pensions that the National Audit Office has confirmed mean they are affordable now and sustainable in the future. When even Bank of England governor Mervyn King admits that this concerted assault on people's pensions would mean the wrong people were paying for the recession it is clearly obvious that the official opposition needs to be bolder in opposing these attacks. John McDonnell MP for Hayes and Harlington DEFENDING PENSIONS RMT/SERCO JUDGMENT Lawyer Richard Arthur explains the significance of RMT’s court victory The Court of Appeal has given a landmark judgment on industrial action. The judgment overturns the injunction granted against RMT in respect of its planned industrial action on Serco. For the first time in the United Kingdom, the Court of Appeal recognises the right to strike in the context of the United Kingdom’s obligations under international law. The only reason why the injunction was granted was because of a technicality. Serco couldn’t convince the High Court that the RMT’s detailed lists and figures for members was inadequate. But the High Court held that the union’s explanation as to how it had arrived at those figures was inadequate. The Court of Appeal ruled unanimously that the union’s explanation of how it had arrived at the figures was more than adequate. It also unanimously rejected Serco’s cross-appeal that the figures for members were not sufficiently accurate. There has been a series of cases over the last few years where the courts have interpreted the industrial action legislation in ever more restrictive ways against trade unions. This judgment should put a halt to that trend. The union must pass on the information that it has about members in its notices, but that is all. It shouldn’t be tripped up by inadvertent errors in complying with the extremely complex balloting requirements. Industrial action legislation in this country is still amongst the most restrictive in the western world. RMT maintains that the United Kingdom has failed to comply with its obligations under international law, a matter which it is pursuing against the government in the European Court of Human Rights. This landmark judgment goes some way to showing why RMT has been right all along.