I don't have a dog in this fight, but this very recent video from the Canadan parliament about recent defined benefit pension change legislation and the finance minister (Bill Morneau) just came up on my radar. I though gives some background to how corporations view and think about pension plans and trends. Apologies if I have interjected beyond my remit, just a few breadcrumbs I have found.
The ease of of companies switching out of UK DB plans was specifically noted at about 3:07.
Source document from the 2013 speech:
PPF National Summit on Pension Reform - Bill Morneau remarks
But we spend much more of our time helping defined benefit plan sponsors manage the risks of these plans for their organization’s financial health.
A significant number of our clients have parent companies or sister companies in the United States or the United Kingdom. Since the movement away from defined benefit plans has been earlier and quicker in these countries, those clients are challenged to either defend their continuing defined benefit plan, or find a way out at the earliest financially plausible opportunity.
Those Canadian organizations that are master of their own destiny are regularly asking whether this trend away from defined benefits is appropriate for their organization.
Human resource leaders recognize that a relatively small percentage of their people expect to spend 30 years in one place – meaning that defined benefit plans may not be as beneficial for employees in practice as they are in theory.