Posted by Tom Heneghan on 26 September 2000 at 15:01:02:
Fellow members of the IBM C Plan
Now that John Spencer, who is the Technical Specialist allocated to us at OPAS, has
decided that we have cause for complaint against the company, the Chairman and the
Trustee Directors of the IBM Pension Plan and that our case is being forwarded to the
Occupational Pensions Ombudsman it would certainly help if we were supported by
more individual complaints. At the present time John is considering only twelve
complaints from the many thousands of C Plan members. If you consider that you are
not being equitably treated then I would urge you to make a complaint to John
Spencer at OPAS Ltd, 11 Belgrave Road, London SW1V 1RB.
I am being asked by many retirees for the significant bullets in any complaint and I
therefore attach my views on why we are not being treated fairly. After reading these
you can decide whether you wish to join us in our complaints to the Ombudsman
1. The Trustee Directors have been guilty of Dereliction of their Duties by not
advising the Members of the C Plan that the original Trust Deed was amended on
24th April 1997 by the creation of a Defined Contribution Plan ( M Plan) to be
funded from the surplus in the C Plan fund plus member's contributions. Since no C
Plan member can benefit from the M Plan it surely was important that C Plan
members were consulted or at least advised of this amendment.
2. The Trustee Directors were further guilty of not advising members of the C Plan
that another Amendment to the Trust Deed was implemented on 24th February 2000
removing the obligation on "The Employer" to make the statutory contributions to the
Retirement Accounts for each member of the M Plan. This was obviously done to
attempt to clear the way for these contributions to be made from the C Plan surplus in
the light of the Ombudsman's decision in favour of the Barclay's Bank Retirees.
3. There has not been an equitable distribution of the C Plan surplus. The company
has taken 100% contribution holidays from the C Plan since 1997 and has at no time
made any contribution to the M Plan. On the other hand since its inception in 1983
until October 1999 increases to retirees in pension from the C Plan have lagged
behind inflation by almost 20% based on information from the Department of
National Statistics.
4. Actuarial assumptions have been adjusted without the agreement of members to
reduce the C Plan surplus which is currently running at circa £700 million.
5. The C Plan surplus is being used to fund the Pensions Component of competitive
outsourcing bids via the M Plan. This is a blatant misuse of monies derived from our
contributions and from contributions made on our behalf as part of the company's
salary programme to us when we were employed.
6. The Chairman and the Trustee Directors are not complying with their legal
obligations as regards disclosures to members nor are they sufficiently representing
the rights of pensioners with the Company.
With regard to how the above should be resolved I believe that our pensions should be
increased to the level of 100% of RPI backdated to 1997 when the company
implemented 100% Contribution Holidays and that we should get a commitment from
the company to pay increases of 100% annually for as long as it takes 100%
Contribution holidays.