CRC ballot looms
by Bernard Harbor
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Staff at Dublin’s Central Remedial Clinic (CRC) are to ballot for industrial action in an escalation of a row over the closure of their contributory pension scheme. IMPACT, which has been in talks with CRC management since it collapsed the scheme last month, says industrial action looks inevitable unless agreement can be reached on the re-establishment of pension provision equivalent to that in the collapsed scheme.
The CRC board and management unilaterally stopped making payments into the fund last month. Management subsequently issued notice of termination of the contributory pension scheme, which covers almost 150 current and former staff who have over 1,000 years of service between them.
IMPACT says it wants to make its own actuarial assessment of the fund and test the legal validity of the scheme closure. But management has refused it access to the books.
The agency claims the fund is carrying a €2.5 million deficit – less than 7% of its liabilities. But IMPACT believes the scheme is not in deficit to this extent.
IMPACT official Ian McDonnell says the union is willing to negotiate measures to close any deficit that exists. “However, we are not going to accept that management can simply cancel the hard-saved pension provision that its staff have built up without bothering to look for ways of salvaging the scheme. Management’s disproportionate handling of a manageable deficit, and its thoroughly insensitive treatment of staff, are totally inept,” he said.
The union says similar or worse deficits in other schemes have been resolved though engagement with staff representatives. Mr McDonnell said IMPACT was open to discuss measures to correct any deficit and secure a defined benefit pension scheme that protects the investment staff have made in their future.
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