'Irish Independent' puts staff on protective notice

Staff at Independent Newspapers have been placed on protective notice in a deepening row over planned changes to the company's pension arrangements.

Unions at the company have already issued notice of industrial action in the event of the company making changes to its defined-benefit pension scheme without agreement.

Management says existing members' pension entitlements are not under threat, but it wants to close off the defined benefit scheme to new entrants.

The row could prove to be the first test of procedures to deal with pension disputes agreed under the new partnership programme, Towards 2016.

It is understood unions are seeking the intervention of the National Implementation Body (NIB), in accordance with the new programme.

It states that the NIB, which is made up of senior Government, union and employer representatives, may "endeavour to assist the parties" when disputes arise over pension schemes.

The implementation body has an impressive track record in helping to resolve difficult disputes but it was snubbed by the Independent in a row over outsourcing in 2004.

A spokesman for the company said last night it had not received any communication from the NIB, so the issue did not arise at this stage.

Notice of industrial action was issued by the unions following a ballot in which 78 per cent of participants voted in favour of that course.

The NUJ has since dismissed company claims that many of those who voted were freelance or casual members of staff who were not members of the pension scheme.

A company spokesman said yesterday 220 of the scheme's 412 members had committed themselves to moving to a new scheme, in which all of their benefits would be protected.

A deficit in the existing scheme would be addressed through increased contributions by both the company and members of the new scheme. New staff members would be offered a defined-contribution pension.

The company would not coerce members of the existing scheme into joining the new one, but it was "clearly in their interests to do so", the spokesman claimed.

He said the decision to place staff on protective notice was a response to the strike threat but nobody would be laid off as long as work continued as normal.

Matters could come to a head after next Thursday, when the company says it will be informing the existing pension scheme's trustees of its intention to move members and benefits to the new scheme.