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PO
Box 41
North
Harbour
Portsmouth
PO6
3AU
Replacing the "Opt-out"
Dear David,
Thank you for your April 16th letter. AMIPP has the
following comments, which we hope you will relay to the directors.
We believe scheme members will regard what the Trustee asked
you to do as consultation. Asking an organisation if it wants to share
its views with the Trustee is a consultation, unless the Trustee intended from
the outset to ignore those views.
The Regulator certainly envisages consultation during the
development of MND arrangements. The Code of Practice says "On the other hand for a large scheme where members are based
at more than one location and the trustees choose to consult with the
membership and/or a representative organisation on the arrangements, it may
take longer than six months to put the arrangements in place".
That you have chosen to talk to the Hursley Retiree Club in
the past is not a sound reason for the Trustee not wishing to hear AMIPP's
views now. Your previous lack of contact with AMIPP is not of
AMIPP's choosing - you have been invited to contribute to AMIPP's web pages and
you chose not to.
The Hursley Retiree Club is able to be democratic because it
has access to scheme member names and addresses provided by IBM and the
Trust. Is the Trustee willing to provide AMIPP with the same service?
We note that you have written as the Pensions Trust Manager
and not as Secretary to the Trust. We hope to hear the views of the
Trustee on the comparison of AMIPP and the Hursley Retiree
Club in due course.
Regards,
Brian Marks, AMIPP Chairman