Posted by Alan Murphy on 13 November 2000 at 08:31:36:
Several members have asked how we are doing. Here are some numbers.
Well over 1200 people have now registered their names on the website.
The 1999 Annual Report of the IBM UK Pension Plan stated that there were over 23,000 members of the Defined Benefit section. We are now past 5% of this total.
Of those registering with us, the proportions are:
Actives 55%
Retirees 38%
Deferred 7%
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TOTAL 100%
The numbers continue to grow, but as you see there is still some way to go. So please tell you friends and colleagues about the website and encourage them to register. Only when we have sufficient numbers will we be able to fully represent your interests.
Regarding MPs, I can report that, to my knowledge, 17 MPs have been
contacted so far. The breakdown is:
Conservatives 8
Labour 4
LibDems 4
Independent 1
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TOTAL 17
I hope to publish a list of MPs on the website shortly, but in the meantime I encourage you to write to your MP about the situation. It does not matter if they have already been contacted by other constituents. You still need to write so as to ensure they know that there are a large number of dissatisfied people in their constituency.
Please inform me if you have contacted your MP so I can produce a comprehensive list.
As you know we have not yet formed an 'association' with elected committee members. This may become necessary shortly, but at the moment we are awaiting the Ombudsman's decision on the initial set of complaints.
If you have new concerns/complaints these CANNOT now be added to the case currently before the Ombudsman. New concerns/complaints need to follow a second path. You first need to write to IBM and attempt to resolve the problem through the Internal Dispute Procedure (IDP). If you are not happy, THEN you should write to OPAS.
Later on this week we are hoping to put up a webpage of NEW Concerns/Complaints which we
intend to forward to OPAS as a second set of complaints. You will be welcome to
comment on these concerns when they become available.
Alan Murphy (Webmaster)