'Independent' group pensions ballot

Employees at Independent Newspapers are to ballot this week on proposals to end the long-running dispute over changes to the company's pension scheme.

The ballot of almost 400 workers will take place today, tomorrow and Wednesday and is likely to be passed following a recommendation for acceptance last week by the Dublin Printing Group of Unions (DPGU).

The DPGU had been mandated by a previous ballot to strike in the event of management's imposing changes without agreement. The company wants to address a €30 million deficit in its defined-benefit pension scheme by increasing staff and employer contributions, but closing the scheme to new entrants.

However, employees are now being recommended to accept the company's proposals, with just minor alterations. The changes to the defined-benefit scheme will go ahead, with employees increasing their contribution from 5.8 per cent to 9.5 per cent while the company's contribution rises from 10.4 per cent to 16.8 per cent.

The scheme will be closed to new entrants, with future employees joining a defined-contribution scheme. In a concession from the company, freelance employees and other workers excluded from the pension scheme will now be permitted to join once they have 10 years' service. A separate set of provisions will apply to those with five or more years' service.

The unions at the newspaper had been staunch in their resistance to the closure of the defined-benefit scheme to new entrants.

However, this position became untenable last month when the trustees of the scheme gave management the go-ahead to implement the changes

In addition to the pension changes, both sides committed to abide by agreed industrial relations procedures. The company previously refused to deal directly with the National Implementation Body (NIB) in its attempts to resolve the dispute. The NIB is made up of senior Government representatives, the employers' group Ibec, and the Irish Congress of Trade Unions.