On a night shift last night, picked up my swanky polished pension proposal booklet and had a quick browse. First thought was of the front cover. Absolutely plastered in that waste of money new logo we commissioned a couple of years ago.
Opened it up and had a brief flick through as didn't want to get even moodier on a night shift than a lack of sleep already makes me but did notice a worrying anwer to a question on "your questions answered" page.
here it is:
"How do we know we won't be required to join the new defined contribution scheme (the new one) at a later date or that NATS won't make it a condition of promotion?
The trust of a promise prevents NATS from forcing employees who were members of the scheme at PPP into the new scheme."
My point being that anyone joining after 26th July 2001 can and will be forced to join the new pension scheme as the "trust of a promise" does not include these people, including myself.
I did a very rough night shift calculation that my own watch ops room contains 15%ish people who fall into this category after only 7 and a half years. In those years, we have gone through the college and validation training. Many NATS departments will have higher percentages already of non trust of a promise employees.
If this two tier scheme gets voted through then it won't be long before to many years (15 anybody??) before there is another review and a vote put to NATS as to closing the old scheme entirely and merging it with the new one. I would vote yes. And I wouldn't blame anyone else for doing it as it would be in the best interest of the members of the new scheme.
RIGHT NOW it is in our interest to all vote NO.
as i'm typing this i have also noticed:
"who makes the final decision on the proposals?"
"having reviewed all the comments resulting from the consultation period which closes on 10 December, the NATS executive will make the final decision about wheter to implement these proposals......
......The outcome of the consultation will be communicated to employees in January 2009."
We are getting shafted, and quickly. Make our opinions heard. Loudly and often.
The results of any PCS and Prospect ballot will not be announced until the end of december.