Marks & Spencer clarifies claims made by unions
Marks & Spencer has issued a statement clarifying claims made by its worker's union last week
Print9 December 2013
Ahead of industrial action which took place on Saturday, Marks and Spencer issued a statement to clarify points raised by the union.
Ahead of industrial action, which took place on Saturday and saw 2,000 staff from 17 stores across the country go on strike, Marks and Spencer issued a statement to clarify points raised by the Mandate trade union. The statement set out to clarify a number of points raised by the union which the group believed were misleading.
The union claims that M&S should have consulted the union and workers prior to the closure of the scheme at the centre of the disagreement between workers and the company. M&S says this claim is completely untrue, stating that the decision to close the Defined Benefit scheme is one which sits outside the terms of M&S’ agreement with the unions. M&S adds it made it clear to the unions that it is open to discussing employee compensation for this closure, which cannot be reversed.
The union also claims the majority of employees are affected by the scheme closure, however M&S rebuts this, saying that two thirds of its employees are completely unaffected by the closure of the scheme. The third that are affected have the opportunity to join a highly competitive Defined Contribution pension scheme which the company says a significant number of previous Defined Benefit scheme members have already signed up to.
The company has also objected to the claim by unions that the scheme has a surplus of €17.5 million. M&S states that the union requested an independent financial audit of the scheme which was carried out by Deloitte. It was found that as of March 2013 the scheme was showing a deficit of €12.6 million. The company says the €17.5 million figure is based on a minimum funding standard which it says is unrealistic for a scheme with so few retired members.
A M&S spokesperson said: "M&S has had to make some very difficult decisions to protect the long-term good of our business in the Republic of Ireland. We have engaged fully and fairly with the unions throughout the entire process and it is unacceptable for them to mislead our employees and customers in this way in order to gain support."
The spokesperson also added that the group is willing to open a dialogue with the union again saying: "We are willing to restart talks as soon as possible with regards to the additional changes that we need to make to protect our business for the future and to discuss compensation in lieu of the closure of the Defined Benefit Pension Scheme. The sooner the unions accept this and re-engage with us, the better it will be for all concerned."
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