WIREDGOV

Despite ministers' claims, the concessions offered in a special negotiating session over pensions this morning were only marginal and would still force public servants to pay more and work longer for less.

While the government has improved its offer on the accrual rate of any new schemes, it is not true that people close to retirement age will be protected, because they will still be forced to pay more in for a pension already devalued by the imposed switch from using RPI to CPI for annual increases – a move we have challenged in the High Court.

The average civil servant – aged 44 and on a salary of £23,760 – would still pay an extra £63.36 a month, or £760.32 a year, work seven years longer, and lose an average of £16,420 over 20 years in the switch from RPI to CPI.

We remain opposed to increases in contributions and retirement age, and the new proposals do not address these core issues.

This latest offer, however, was only wrung out of the government by the threat of mass industrial action on 30 November, and following our successful strike with education unions in June.

The public sector group of unions met immediately after the talks and agreed to look at the detail of how the new proposals would affect each of the pension schemes, but said preparations are continuing for a strike by up to three million workers.

PCS's policy and resources committee of the national executive is due to meet tomorrow and will discuss the latest developments.

The other large public sector unions are still balloting for industrial action – with the largest of them, Unison, due to announce its result tomorrow.

More information will be posted to this website and issued to members as soon as it is available, but we continue to plan for 30 November to make it the best supported strike we have ever seen.