INDUSTRIAL ACTION BALLOT AT iPSL

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TO ALL BRANCHES



Dear Colleague

INDUSTRIAL ACTION BALLOT AT iPSL

Branches are advised that the CWU has today informed iPSL that we will be balloting members for industrial action over proposed pension changes.

iPSL is planning to close the final salary pension scheme for existing members from 31st March 2011 and replace it with an inferior defined contribution pension which reduces company contributions by two thirds.

We have been in talks with iPSL since September last year trying to reach an agreement to keep the final salary pension open and to improve the current defined contribution pension. However, the company have refused to entertain CWU proposals to reduce costs and risk and insists on going ahead with the closure of the final salary pension. Improvements in the defined contribution pension have been tied to the closure of the final salary scheme and while some compensation has been offered to those losing their final salary pension these only last two years. The Union has rejected all the Company proposals and served notice of industrial action.

At the request of the company we have agreed to go to talks at ACAS in an effort to see if industrial action can be avoided, but given that the pension changes are due to take place on 31st March we will be pressing ahead with our ballot.

Yours sincerely,


Nigel Cotgrove
Assistant Secretary
Communication Workers Union
150 The Broadway,
Wimbledon,
London. SW19 1RX

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UK cheque processing under threat as Merseyside workers balloted for strike

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Staff at a Merseyside company which processes almost three-quarters of all cheques in the UK have been balloted for industrial action over plans to change company pension arrangements.

Cheque processor iPSL in Bootle is planning to close the final salary pension scheme for existing members from March 2 and replace it with a pension which reduces company contributions by two thirds and places all the investment risk on members.

The CWU has proposed alternative cost-cutting measures which would allow the scheme to stay open, but say these have been rejected by the company.

Nigel Cotgrove, CWU assistant secretary, said: “We have been in talks with iPSL since September last year trying to reach an agreement to keep the final salary pension open.

" However, the company have refused to entertain CWU proposals to reduce costs and risk and insists on going ahead with the closure of the pension despite the clear support of our members for the union’s approach.

"Therefore, we have had no option but to start an industrial action ballot, which could lead to the first ever strike in the company.

“At the request of the company we have agreed to go to talks at ACAS in an effort to see if industrial action can be avoided, but given that the pension changes are due to take place on March 31, we will be pressing ahead with our ballot.”

iPSL processes about 70 per cent of the cheques in the UK and is owned by UNISYS, HSBC, Lloyds and Barclays.

The CWU represents some 300 staff based at the Bootle site.

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iPSL workers in pension row ‘warned against taking industrial action’


MERSEYSIDE workers in a pension row with management said they were told they should fear for their jobs if they took industrial action.

The staff at cheque handling firm iPSL are voting over whether to take a stand against plans by bosses to change the pension scheme.

But the company’s operations director Bob Wright allegedly warned staff clients could take their business elsewhere if the action went ahead.

Ballot papers for the vote were issued to around 100 staff in Bootle yesterday.

According to the Communication Workers Union, which represents some of the 300 staff at iPSL’s Bootle offices, workers currently save 7% and have a guaranteed final salary pension.

But the firm wants to end the “defined benefits” scheme.

Mr Wright was said to have issued the warning at a staff meeting in front of up to 100 workers at the firm’s Bridle Road base.

CWU’s iPSL Bootle branch secretary Gerry Culligan said: “At the moment we have got a dispute with the company over closing the final salary pension scheme, which they intend to close at the end of March.”

In a statement last week iPSL said it needed to cut costs because of the “declining cheque clearing market”.

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