Biscuitman

BAE planning €742m pensions plug

IPE.com 14/Nov/05: UK – BAE Systems is planning to reduce its £2.8bn (€4.1bn) pensions deficit by almost 18% following consultations between the company and UK employee representatives.

The weapons maker plans to plug £500m (€742m) – in the form of cash and assets - INTO phpbb_the fund. A BAE spokesperson told IPE that the mix would include “more cash than property” but could not give a percentage ratio.

The payment follows long-running talks initiated in the summer between BAE and employee representatives, including aerospace unions.

A weekend report claimed employees are being asked to consider reduced scheme benefits, including payout cuts for those taking early retirement, in return for the payment.

Existing pensioners will not be affected by these decisions, however.

The spokesperson was unable to comment any further on the consultations as they are still in progress. There is also no fixed date for a final decision.

The remaining £2.3bn deficit will be met “in all sorts of different ways and won’t directly involve members having to pay in”, said the spokesperson.

He put the deficit – the second largest in relation to stock-market value among FTSE 100 companies, and ranked behind British Airways – on the change in life expectancy, amongst others.

The fund has between 37,000 and 40,000 contributors.

In 2003 BAE increased its contribution to the company scheme from 11.7% to 18.2%, while employees boosted their input from 5% to 9.3% of pay.

Oh and just to throw in a couple of pension points from Europe:-

KPN faces strike on pensions
IPE.com 14/Nov/05: NETHERLANDS - Dutch telecoms firm KPN is the second company within a month to face a strike over pensions.

Union AbvaKabo FNV, the largest union of telecom staff, is currently consulting its members on industrial action, after the negotiations on a new collective labour agreement, or CAO, have broken down.

The main problem is KPN’s plan to raise the pension age to 63.5 next year and ultimately to 65. The unions insist on a scheme which allows retirement at 62.7.

Earlier retirement will however remain possible, because of improvements in the pension scheme, KPN, which has 18.0000 employees, stressed in a statement.

Earlier this month the workers of Shell Netherlands went on strike, because the company wants its employees to begin paying premiums. Moreover, it intended to raise the retirement age of 60 to 65.

The strike ended after a few days. The players agreed that the retirement age of 60 will remain. The workers will start paying 2% premium. Shell will also pay 3% of the workers’ salaries INTO phpbb_a ‘levensloop’, or life course, scheme.

VW facing reports of pension fund abuse

IPE.com 14/Nov/05: GERMANY – The former Volkswagen managers at the centre of a sex and bribery scandal may have attempted to misappropriate funds from Volkswagen Pension Trust (VPT), the €1.5bn pension fund for the car giant, according to a German newspaper.

Citing an internal memo from the accountant KPMG, the Welt am Sonntag newspaper reported that among other abuses, the managers may have tried to raid VPT for cash.

However, the newspaper said the amount of money which Volkswagen may have lost as a result of any abuses, namely €5m, was much lower than previously thought.

Former VPT chief executive Helmuth Schuster is one of 10 managers under investigation since the scandal broke in June. None have so far been indicted by the pubic prosecutor for Brunswick, which is near VW’s headquarters in Wolfsburg.

The other managers, all of whom have either have left of have been fired, include Peter Hartz, VW’s former top executive for personnel, Klaus-Joachim Gebauer, another senior personnel executive and Klaus Volkert, who headed VW’s workers’ council.

The newspaper also said Gebauer was emerging as the central figure in the affair. It said Gebauer helped Schuster found several “dummy component firms” outside of Germany so that they both could personally profit from lucrative supply contracts with Volkswagen.

The Brunswick prosecutor is also looking INTO phpbb_allegations that labour representatives at VW, in exchange for their support of management decisions, accepted bribes and other perks.

VPT had no comment on the Welt am Sonntag article.

At the end of July, VPT replaced Schuster with Josef-Fidelis Senn. VPT’s other board executive is Albrecht Möhle.

VPT, one of the first contractural trust arrangements set up by German multinationals, serves the carmaker’s 168,000 employees. Its €1.5bn in assets are derived from company pension plans and so-called “overtime accounts”.

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IF THE EU WAS THE ANSWER, IT MUST HAVE BEEN A STUPID QUESTION!

Britannist

:shock: .