The RMT have received a proposal from Thales UK to amend the future pension increases for members of legacy final salary pension schemes (such as Thomson Retirement Benefit Scheme, Thales Optronics Pension Scheme and Racal Group Pension Scheme) and those in the Thales UK Pension Scheme (TUPs) ONLY. This proposal will see future payments from these defined benefit schemes being index linked to the CPI figure rather than the RPI figure which is usually higher.
This proposal would potentially see members having to survive on lower pensions than they would have done under the old scheme rules.
Also worrying, the proposal, though not clear, seem to infer that Thales are going to court and we can only assume that this is to attempt to rewrite the Pension Rules (in effect the promise made to its members) to change the indexation criteria to RPI.
To this end, the RMT have demanded full talks on this matter and will be opposing these changes until this has occurred. Furthermore, should Thales win this matter in court then the RMT will also be referring this matter to our solicitors and will not hesitate to challenge any ruling legally or industrially if necessary. We will keep our members informed of developments