Pension talks 'constructive and positive'

The comments by Greg Meekings, chairman of Reuters Pension Fund and Supplementary Pension Scheme, were in response to an earlier letter from PRG chairman Angela Dean in which she underlined pensioners’ continuing concerns about the declining value of their pensions. RPF, the larger of the two funds, has nearly 8,000 members.

With discretionary annual increases paid in only three of the last nine years the real value of RPF pensions has dropped substantially because of inflation, the PRG said. The group calculates that pensioners would need an increase of 16.7 per cent to bring the value of pensions back to the levels of early 2003. The rise needed will jump to 23.3 per cent if no increase is awarded in January.

Discussions between RPF, SPS and the company aim to produce a new pensions agreement effective from 31 March 2012. The current agreement allows for annual inflation increases only if the fund is in surplus. Both the RPF and the SPS are currently in deficit. The company’s last major injection of funds was in 2006.

The PRG said it was encouraged by comments made last December by chief executive Tom Glocer expressing his concern about the position of UK pensioners and calling on those responsible to find a way of resolving the problem, both now and in the future. “I care a lot about our obligations to our pensioners and all our pension plans around the world,” Glocer said in a talk to The Reuter Society. “We’ll do whatever we need to do.” 

The PRG met last month to consider Meekings’ letter and decided to await the outcome of current discussions before taking any further action, in the hope that positive comments so far would translate into an agreement which would guarantee an annual increase in pensions.

The group was established in 2004 by retired staff of Reuters. Its objective is to restore inflation-linked increases and bring certainty to pensioners in future by ensuring there is a sound agreement in place that protects the value of pensions and the security of the pension fund. ■