Association of Teachers and Lecturer

 

Strike Action by other union members

 

Advice from Andy Peart National Official

27th March 2006



As you will be aware the local government unions held a one day strike yesterday in protest at the proposed changes to the Local Government Pension Scheme, and specifically the proposal to end the 85 year rule which allows members of the scheme to retire from 60 on an unreduced pension if their length of service in the scheme added to their age equals 85.

If the dispute isn't resolved the local government unions intend to continue with the action throughout April by bringing out selective groups of staff on strike on a rolling basis which will culminate in a two day all out strike in early May to coincide with the local council elections which are taking place in certain parts of the country, including London.

Whilst we have received a large volume of calls about the strike action at headquarters, only a small percentage were from support staff members asking why we hadn't balloted them to take action. The majority of calls were from members and reps simply asking what they should do on the day.

What we therefore need to know from you is the feedback you received from support staff members of the branch about the dispute. Were you inundated with calls about the strike from members demanding to know why ATL wasn't involved or was there little contact from members and the members who did get in touch did not want to go on strike?

The reason we need this information is to gauge the strength of feeling from members about the dispute to help us decide on whether to ballot support staff members in the state sector to take action in May if that action does go ahead. Please note we have no intention of balloting ATL teacher members who are not members of the Local Government Pension Scheme over this issue.

If we are to ballot it would have to be on the basis that the majority of members were willing to not only vote yes in a ballot but also to come out on strike for those days in May, and potentially take further strike action.

There were a number of issues to consider in relation to not balloting for yesterday's action and those remain equally relevant with regard to future action. Some of those issues are as follows:

ATL does not have a tradition of taking strike action for a large amount of members and thus it would prove difficult to achieve a significant yes vote in a ballot.

  1. Some support staff members may have joined ATL because we don't generally take strike action and may take the fact we are balloting as a reason for leaving to join another union who don't (PAT).
  2. Many support staff members may not be able to benefit from the 85 year rule because their length of service in the pension scheme will not amount to 25 years before they reach 65. Remember the dispute is not above moving the normal retirement age from 60 to 65. The normal retirement age has always been, and will remain, 65 with only those meeting the 85 year rule being able to take an unreduced pension earlier. (Members who leave local government service in future and have the appropriate break in service to meet the 85 year rule will also be affected as at the moment they can take their deferred pension at 60 but under the proposals future leavers would have to wait until they are 65).
  3. The current proposed changes to the scheme give protection for those employees who would meet the 85 year rule up to 2013 so a number of members may not suffer a detriment because of that protection.

 

However, there are also reasons we need to take into account in favour of balloting such as:

The proposed changes are a clear attack on the current scheme and may be the start of continuing detrimental proposals, such as increasing the contribution rate for example.

  1. The government agreed to protect the existing pension provisions for teachers who are currently members of the teachers' pension scheme, as well as other employees in the public sector, but have refused to give equal treatment to local government workers.
  2. Nine unions have so far been involved in the dispute and ATL support staff members who work alongside colleagues in Unison, for example, may find their working relationships affected by the dispute and ATL's lack of participation in it.
  3. Some members have said that even though they are not able to take advantage of the 85 year rule they would have liked to show their support for fellow council workers in opposing the proposals by going on strike.

If we were to ballot there is a timescale issue and therefore I would ask you if possible to email me by Tuesday 4 April with any comments, views you may have. It would also be useful to know if the information we sent you, and made available on the website, was sufficient or if it would have been easier if you had received more information about the dispute and strike (or, for example, a model letter to send to support staff members).

We are also intending to ask support staff members for their views on the proposed changes to the pension scheme and the dispute by emailing them directly.

Return to ATL Home Page