Catherwood LibraryILR School

According to Roger Lyons, president of Britain’s largest manufacturing union Amicus, proposals to eliminate benefits for surviving spouses and discontinue inflation adjustments would gut pensions rather than saving them. Contained in a report written by the former chairman of the National Association of Pension Funds (NAPF), and commissioned by the current Labour Party government, the proposals have also drawn criticism from charity organizations over the affect they will have on the elderly. While the report’s author has defended the proposals as a way of preventing further pension plan terminations similar to the one causing labor unrest at several Welsh steel plants (see WIT for July 5, 2002), Mr. Lyons attributes the move away from such plans to an attempt by British employers to exploit legal loopholes to shift risks to their employees.