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Tank drivers talk pensions...
Page 12
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Have the big logistics firms finally poured oil on troubled waters with talk of new pension deals for tanker drivers? Guy Sheppard reports.
THOUSANDS OF OIL tanker drivers could be offered a new 'portable' pension scheme in the New Year following talks between union leaders and employers.
Both sides attended a presentation last week to see how a similar scheme operates in the building and civil engineering industries.
Ron Webb, Transport & General Workers Union (T&G) national secretary for road transport, believes that certain parts of this scheme could be applied to the oil industry.
"Things could always be moving quicker, but it's fair to say we're on the train now and hope to be at our destination in around four months' time," he says.
But Peter Lamer, managing director of J W SucklingTransport, who attended the presentation, plays down the prospect of an imminent agreement: "This presentation was, in my view, very useful, but it was essentially a fact-finding mission."
He adds that a further meeting will take place later this month.
The T&G represents nearly 3,000 oil tanker drivers and warns that the overall value of their pensions has been steadily eroded by oil companies contracting out their distribution.
Webb accepts that an industrywide final salary scheme is not achievable, but he is calling for more guarantees to be built into a transferable pension than are currently offered through existing money purchase schemes. "The most important thing for us is that it provides proper illhealth provision," he says. At present, you have to be near rigor mortis to achieve a pension on the grounds of ill health.
"We feel it's not good enough for employers to say to someone with 25 years service 'you're no longer fit enough to carry on — goodbye'," he concludes.