18 April, 2012
The four-month dispute by consumer products company Unilever to scrap a final salary pension scheme for 5,200 UK workers ended in march when unions members of two of the three unions involved voted to accept a compromise.
Members of Unite the Union and the Union of Shop, Distributive and Allied Workers (USDAW) accepted a revised deal that does close off the scheme, but grants important protections regarding indexing of a new career averaging plan, built-in consultations with the unions, and a moratorium on any further changes until the year 2018.
A ballot by the third union involved, the GMB, is currently underway. Union members of Unite, the largest labour organisation representing Unilever workers at the 12 food and consumer products factories, voted by a two-to-one margin to accept the compromise. In March, USDAW members – in a vote with a low turn-out – rejected the proposal, but the union conducted a second ballot early this month that passed.
Unite's Battle Bus
According to Unite National officer Jennie Formby, the company retreated in some of its harshest proposals contained in the new pension scheme, including unilateral ability to implement annual indexing below UK’s Retail Price Index (RPI) and eliminating any consultations with the social partners.
In the compromise, negotiated with the help of UK’s Advisory, Conciliation, and Mediation Services (ACAS), indexing of the new scheme to take effect 1 July will be at RPI plus one percent and Unilever is obligated to discuss aspects of the new scheme twice annually with the three unions.
The Anglo-Dutch company’s hard stance in eliminating a final salary pension plan in the UK produced the first strikes ever at Unilever plants there, with workers taking industrial action in December and again in 11 days of rolling strikes in late January.