BB FANS

Press Association
Thursday December 1, 2005 10:18 PM

Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott will anger unions when he ends an early retirement scheme for local government employees.

The so-called 85-year rule allows council workers to retire on a full pension from age 51 provided they have been employed for 34 years.

That will be scrapped by Mr Prescott in a written Commons statement.

Union representatives of the two million council employees and their local authority bosses will have to thrash out a new deal.

Sir Sandy Bruce Lockhart, chair of the Local Government Association, said the changes were "both needed and necessary".

"The key aspect of this decision is that any changes to the pension scheme will not cost the council taxpayer any more money while at the same time making sure that local government remains an attractive place to work in," he said.

"The Local Government Association has been pressing for these changes for the last 12 months.

"In the long run, the current pensions scheme for council staff, particularly the '85 year rule' is not economically viable for council taxpayers, employers or employees."

The rule which allows those whose ages added to their length of service adds up to 85 to retire on a full pension was already under threat from Brussels.

Unions have insisted it should remain but Government sources argue it discriminates against women, who are likely to have taken jobs later.

Another right, down the pan that these, bastards are doing away with then? What's the point voting anymore, for what? work till you drop dead. No rights, No dentists, No pensions, No NHS, No Benefits. Plenty of wars, to cover up the fact there all failures, a world of greed that worships oil and the $ and feck anyone who doesn't tag along with it. We might as well have the Tories back in but then who needs em, when Blairs doing the job for em. Bloody bunch of con artists, these lot.

for once i agree with that fat git prescott

i've mates who work for the council and its easy money for an easy job, they won't have any problem attracting people to work for them

Just a pity Jabba 2 jags won't give up any of his perks.

my mate the binman was telling me today about how he got a cheap computer for his daughters christmas, courtesy of a council scheme which provides subsidised computers to council workers

aint that nice for us council tax payers to know we're paying for £200 off their purchases

Thought you were going to say he got one out of a bin at first That's another perk the local blokes at the tip, got a sunbed out of my brother last week

funnily enough, thats where he got his last computer

some of the perfectly good stuff he and the other binmen pick up is incredible, they sell a lot of it on and make a nice little bonus