Bríd Smith: Demands Retired Workers' Voice in Pension Negotiations
Bríd Smith addressed a committee about a bill to give retired workers a formal role in pension scheme negotiations, arguing it would correct a historic injustice. She said the bill would allow retired workers to participate in negotiation, consultation and arbitration when changes to pension schemes are proposed.
Proposal summary
The bill seeks to redefine who counts as a retired worker and what constitutes an industrial dispute, and to change the trigger for participation so affected retirees can join negotiations - shifting eligibility from up to six months after leaving work to up to six months after a change to a pension scheme is proposed. Smith said the draft contains 13 sections to address these details.
Reason for the bill
Smith said many public sector and semi-state workers who stayed in long careers saw pensions cut during austerity and now lack a seat at the table when schemes are altered. She described the disregard shown to over half a million retired workers as "unacceptable" and stressed the real-life consequences for day-to-day and week-to-week living standards.
Evidence and drafting support
Smith thanked the Office of the OPLA for a year of drafting assistance and praised their thorough approach to redefining dispute and membership terms. She also noted evidence from representatives including RTE that illustrated how pension reductions have driven many into poverty.
Limitations of current remedies
Smith argued that relying on an ombudsman or individual complaints is insufficient and weakens collective bargaining power; the bill aims to provide a collective forum so retired workers' voices are heard during employer negotiations rather than excluded.
Committee appeal and next steps
Smith urged the committee to take the bill seriously, to progress it and to be open to amendments. She asked members to recognise the lived experience of retired workers and to move the measure to further consideration as soon as possible.
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Okay, thanks very much. Look, I think the last couple of sentences probably summed up what I want to say. Pardon me, my voice is a bit compromised. Since I have got to know this group of people working around the need to have their voices heard, it really has come home to me to realise that when you take a job, and a lot of them are public sector and semi-state because their pensions were hit so hard, particularly during the austerity years, these are the people who built the state, who stayed in jobs for 40-plus years, sometimes 45, maybe more years, and stayed in them and were dedicated to them. Then they retire and then they are told they are worthless pieces of and do not have any voice at the table when something as fundamental as the income that they have to live on when they are older is being stripped down. Now, it is slightly different to my own experience, but nevertheless, and I do want to say this in response to Deputy Bruton's questions, Pensions are often used in pay negotiations for employers to get a result that is favourable to them. If they are going to give an increase of, let's say, 5% or 10%, they then look to cut things off, other bits. It is a way of tailoring down their costs and their responsibilities. I, you know, mea culpa was party to such negotiations as a young woman and without realising it, was willing to just say, yeah, cut the pension, so what? Because I am a young woman, it does not matter to me and I probably will not stay in this job anymore and neither will my mates. But to actually not have a pensioner at the table to say what that would do to them in their day-to-day, I should call them retired workers rather than pensioners, to say what happens to them in their day-to-day, week-to-week life is a real injustice. And that's what the core of this bill is trying to do, is to address a historic injustice that the disregard shown in this case to over half a million retired workers when their pension scheme is altered or subject to change during negotiations is just unacceptable. And in this day and age, we're dealing with climate bills, we're dealing with all sorts of challenges and we always talk about justice, transition, voices at tables, inclusion, great new modern world, but this is a cohort of people who are deliberately excluded. And it's been a very dramatic experience in their lives over the last few years. And as we can all see, none of us are getting any younger, but certainly the people who've worked so hard on this sitting around the table need this to be moved on at a better pace than it has been. I know Deputy Staunton has said there's lots of legislation before this committee, understand that. I'm on a similar committee, we get lots of legislation, but we do need to try and move this on. So my appeal today is for this committee to try and understand and be very clear that the attempt of this bill is to address a historic injustice and is absolutely open to amendments. We're not saying that's it, we'll accept nothing less than this. But the effect of it will be to change one simple fact, and that is that at the moment, up to six months after you leave work, you're informed to go to. This would change it to up to six months after a change is proposed to your pension scheme, you are subject to, you know, to be allowed to be party to negotiation, consultation and arbitration. And here I want to thank the Office of the OPLA, very experienced, very good drafters of bills who worked for a year on helping to draft this bill. And their patience and experience is really important in this because they weren't sort of looking at it, well, let's, you know, do a sloppy job here or there. They actually took the core of the issues around which we need to get pension organisations and their representatives around the table when their own pension schemes are being changed due to negotiations by employers and others. So I think that that's really important. And they took into account in doing that how they needed to redefine what an industrial dispute looked like, what a retired worker looked like. And all of that is in the bill, there's 13 sections of it that will deal with that in lots of detailed way. So, look, I'm basically asking for this to be taken by this committee very, very seriously. And not to think that these people have no skin in the game. They absolutely do. And to have your voice listened to is really important. Whether people realise that or not, it is really important. And this isn't just about industrial relations matters between existing workers and their employers. It's about the lived experience that you hear around the table today and the consequences that arise when you don't take that into consideration. In fact, they're not here today, but representatives of an organisation, as hoity-toity as RTE, who were on this group, gave us evidence of the absolute poverty they have gone into in their pensions over the period that these cuts were brought in. And I was quite shocked to hear how much people's living standards have been reduced and will remain reduced because they have no access to a forum where they will be listened to. And this bill just seeks to give them access and to give their voice around the table a process of being heard. Having to go to an ombudsman is not sufficient. And often going as an individual rather than a collective totally weakens your position. So I think that these proposals in the bill and, as I say, the OPLA went to great lengths to make sure that they were robust. We are open to amendments and we do want to see this progress to the committee. I just want to thank the chair and the committee for your time here today. Thanks, Deputy Smith. So that concludes our consideration of the matter for today. And I want to thank all the representatives for assisting the committee in this consideration of this important matter today. The committee will further consider this matter as soon as possible. Did you want? Thank you for listening to all our contributions and for your interaction and for the questions that have been asked to give clarity to the situation. And we hope that we can progress it from here. I want to thank you as well for your time and consideration. And just to remind people that in our written submissions in the public consultation and the pre-meeting there's more details. But thank you very much for your time. Thank you all. And also to the deputies, all the deputies.
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