Congress Says AIB Board Must Live up to Responsibilities
22 May 2007
Congress has called on the Board of AIB to 'live up to its responsibilities' when it meets to consider the recommendation for improved AIB staff pensions, issued recently by an independent tribunal chaired by Kevin Foley.
The AIB Board is to meet on Thursday, May 24 to consider the recommendation for a new pension scheme. Under the proposal, staff currently covered by a Defined Contribution scheme can upgrade to a Defined Benefit scheme, with new staff also entitled to join.
Congress General Secretary David Begg said AIB's Board of Directors had "a clear duty to consider this important proposal in great detail, along with a responsibility to ensure all staff had decent pension coverage to provide security in retirement. It is important that the Board live up to those responsibilities."
Mr Begg pointed out that the Foley recommendation was the result of some two years negotiation between employers and unions. As such, "it is significant insofar as it clearly demonstrates that engagement by both parties and utilisation of established procedures can deliver real progress in cracking the pension's problem.
"This serves as a positive example for all other sectors and shows the pension crisis can best be tackled in a spirit of partnership, as opposed to unilateralism."
Mr Begg said the Foley proposal was sufficiently "fresh and innovative" to merit close examination by all relevant parties and should feed into the national review of pension policy agreed under Towards 2016.
ends