Posted by Dave Mitchell on 20 September 2000 at 23:13:31:
In Reply to: C Plan is a 'Contributory Pension' posted by Roger Burtenshaw on 20 September 2000 at 20:49:29:
Clearly IBM must maintain that the two sections are part of the same scheme, since it has not applied for permission via OPAS to remove funds from the C Plan (Defined Benefits) section. But there's another way of looking at this.
IBM has to contribute each year to the M Plan (8% of salary for each employee member). So it should have contributed in 1999, 1998 and 1997. There's no record of this in the IBM balance sheet of course, how could there be, since IBM didn't make any contribution - it took (most of) the required money each year from the C plan "surplus". But surely this means that IBM is failing in its statutory duty to put defined amounts of money into the M plan.
It seems to me the only way that IBM can claim it's putting ITS money into the M plan - as it's required to do - is admit that it's doing what we claim - taking money out of the C plan (so it becomes IBM money) and then putting it into the M plan. But this means admitting that they've broken the OPAS rules - n'est ce pas? Even if they maintain that they are putting it back into the same scheme, they still have to admit that (for a short while) they illegally took it out.