23 September 2005
Ministers and trade union leaders have delayed a crunch meeting over public sector pension reforms until after the Labour Party conference.
Trade and Industry Secretary Alan Johnson, who chairs the Cabinet Office's Public Services Forum pension panel, and unionists representing 3 million staff, were due to meet on September 19.
Johnson wants unionists to agree a set of principles that would underpin future discussions on cost-cutting reforms to individual public sector pension schemes.
Sources close to the talks said Johnson and Trades Union Congress general secretary Brendan Barber agreed to delay the meeting because neither side felt that they could reach an agreement before the conference begins on September 25.
Barber has claimed that ministers have 'not made a convincing case' for the plan to increase the pension age from 60 to 65 — the most far-reaching of the government's proposals.
At the TUC's annual conference last week, 13 public service unions threatened to lead strikes over the switch. But PF's sources said Johnson and Barber were still 'hopeful' that a set of principles could be agreed.
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