Thursday, April 09, 2009

UNISON national seminar on Representation and Governance in LGPS

I am still playing catch-up with posts. This is on the seminar I attended last month on the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS). UNISON is leading a campaign to improve the governance of the LGPS. This is important to our members since a badly run scheme would result in its demise while it is also important for the wider economy. It the biggest pension fund in the UK with asserts worth £125 billion (2008). These asserts need to be managed effectively and safely. We have all seen recently what happens when there is there is poor governance and regulation of capital.

I see that the former head of the CBI, Sir John Banham, has written a report (RSA – Tomorrow Investor) “called for pension funds to take greater responsibility for how and where their money is invested, with trustees acting as ‘owners of companies’ rather than as ‘speculators in shares’…investors must ‘bridge the ownership gap’ and insist that fund managers only invest in companies where they are fully satisfied about the long-term potential for business.

All other funded pension schemes in the UK have statutory obligations to have member nominated trustee representatives involved in the governance of their pensions. This was to stop Rogue Company bosses like Maxwell stealing from pension funds and because it as felt that the best people to scrutinise the running of a pension scheme would be the representatives of the savers. This view was endorsed in a number of government reviews (Myners Report for one).

The LGPS has no such statutory obligation. While there is a Government “best practice” guide, which encourages member representation. There are no real sanctions against employers who wish to continue to run their schemes in secret and without being held to account what they do with other people’s money.

It was a well attended event with existing “member nominated representatives” (MNRs) and people interested in becoming MNRs from all over the UK. Keith Sonnet, the UNISON Deputy General Secretary was the keynote speaker. National Officer, Colin Meech gave an update on negotiations with the CLG. The CLG have now conceded that they need to change the scheme to comply with EU and British law. There was a legal briefing by Ivan Walker from Thompson’s solicitors followed by two different workshops in the afternoon. Finally, UNSION Pensions officer Glyn Jenkins gave an update on the negotiations with the CLG over LGPS benefits (as opposed to governance). The campaign continues.

(I will add photos of event another time)

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's our Governments policy " to insure we have a strong, stable and growing economy so people can be in work, be in their jobs, and so be better off. What's important is that people should be in their jobs, and be able to afford their mortgages". Harriet Harman 2nd April, 2008, PMQ's.
The Party of economic competence.

Anonymous said...

let me think about the shadow cabinet
all bankers