This is a follow-on from previous week summaries and they should be read first. (Expect some duplication, nevertheless.)

AMIPP WEBSITE AND FORUM

A satisfactory mechanism to allow polling on specific questions has been introduced. [www.amipp.org.uk]

Newsletter 40 has been issued. [www.amipp.org.uk] AMIPP has written to some MPs about the broader issue of why they should involve themselves. [www.amipp.org.uk] remaining time line being adopted by IBM is as follows;

(The consultation has started. There will be minor delay to the schedule shown because of the way it was started.)
Sat 3rd October - End of 60 day consultation
Mon 5th October - IBM finalise proposals

The time line after 5th October will be dependent on the decisions taken by IBM following the consultation period. However, it has been suggested that the Company consideration of the output from the PCC will last one week, after which the Company will announce its decisions. It has also been indicated in the Q&A\'s on the Wiki that the Company will open a month long window during October - November for employees to submit requests to take early retirement.


THE AUTHORITIES

Nothing further is to be expected from The Pensions Advisory Service until they are approached by individuals with complaints that the Pensions Ombudsman might consider.

There has been no response from the Regulator to complaints about the setup of the consultation process. (Although obviously the Regulator did not act on requests to stop the election process.)

There has been nothing further from the Pensions Trust since the 9 July statement on its website. (Despite a PCC request to be told about the Trust’s activitities.)

THE LEGAL ASPECTS

A few contributors write in terms of executives in the dock but the majority see the legal reasoning as an influence on IBM’s proposals, rather than leading to court action.

The themes remain:

- Bad faith in proposing these changes so soon after the 2006 commitments.
- Bad faith in the disparity of treatment between those who chose DB and those who chose DC.
- Automatic ranking, with the lowest ranked “managed out”, is seen as constructive dismissal.
- History is considered to have established implied conditions in employment contracts, relating to retirement.

LEGAL AND ACTUARIAL ADVICE FOR THE PCC

Some advice is being provided to the PCC by the firm Pi [www.piconsulting.co.uk] This is advice about the pensions world and how the PCC might behave. It is not providing legal or actuarial information about the proposals. IBM is determined to maintain the advantage it has in information, and has refused a PCC request that it funds the PCC acquisition of independent information.

More is known about the PCC plan for a “fighting fund”. It will be raising £50,000 initially, by asking for £50 from each C-Plan member. When the details of how to donate are known, AMIPP will help to publicise them.

DISTRIBUTION LISTS

For historical reasons, and because more than one organisation is involved with the issues, the employees (and others with an interest) are finding themselves needing to get on various distribution lists. This does not seem to have been a deterrent. The PCC has build up a nearly full list of C-Planners who wanted to be on their list. IBM have offered the PCC a complete list of C-Planners but it has not materialised yet .

PCC STATEMENT AND MINUTES.

The PCC made a statement at the first PCC meeting, describing the collective view of those elected. The statement has been generally supported by contributors to the forum, although there was significant criticism of it as a negotiating position that conceded too much about the closing to accrual.

IBM did not respond to the statement. At IBM’s insistence it does not appear in the minutes. Forum contributors see that as improper.

UNION ACTIVITY

The AMIPP home page has details of the Greenock meeting (August 17) and Manchester meeting (August 20).

ACTIONS

The blog [aarmonkaardvark.blogspot.com] is operating again but only to the extent of explaining that it is actually a committee voice, and cannot be a source of extra information.

The PCC has encouraged writing to MPs but otherwise the current “media/publicity” activity has been (officially at least) left to more informal efforts. The effectiveness of that will be seen in Monday night’s South Today lead story.


SUMMARY OF SUMMARY

The PCC has made its major move – a fighting fund that will allow it to bring professional independent opinion to the consulting table.

Energy and frustration from activist individuals has broken through the PCC’s (apparent) intention to limit public consideration of the factors bearing on the consultation.

NOTE

Please say if you regard this summary as a travesty, or it omits a point you consider major. I can edit it.

See also:
C Plan blog [armonkaardvark.blogspot.com]
Yahoo Group [finance.groups.yahoo.com]
Union starter [www.amipp.org.uk]'



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 09 October 2009 10:03AM by admin1.