As they say it's a done deal. NATS have a 3 year pensions holiday. The members however keep paying at their usual rates. My fears are that in 3 years time plus the 18 months at the decalared reduced contributions rate for NATS, they will be unable/unwilling to pay their contributions at the required rate [ about 30%]. Then as the member trustees state, they would be obliged to close down the NATS section of the CAAPS and lo & behold staff will be offered by NATS a 'Money-purchase' pension scheme which will be infinitely inferior to the current scheme and definitely lesss costly for the employer. I hope that I am wrong.
The TU reps have obtained some member 'benefit improvements' the principal one of which is a change in the accrual rates from 59th's to 58th's, however if we lose the current pension scheme, in my books 58th's of nothing is no better than 59th's of the same.
I accept that NATS have the legal right to take a pension contributions 'holiday' [ something that has not happened before] but I fail to see why without member consultation and support the TU reps supported management, and I understand went against the advice of their executives and more fundamental ignored the advice of the member trustees. The latter body have ensured that over past years that the fund has remained healthy.
I suspect that the TU reps have been hoodwinked by their new access to NATS senior management and apparent involvement in company policy determination.
However on this issue, after 35 years in IPPCS/IPMS/Prospect, they have got it wrong.
All the external indicators are that the pensions industry is extremely volatile and now is not the time to make changes. Worldwide investment returns are plummeting, the ENRO collapse has cost investors and banks billions. I hope that the pension fund did not have any money invested there.
