28 September 2006
A legal challenge by Unison to a government decision to stop
local authority workers retiring early on full pensions has failed
in the High Court.
Public sector union Unison brought the challenge over changes to
the "85-year rule", which previously allowed workers who are
members of the Local Government Pension Scheme to retire early on
full pensions provided their age plus years of service totals 85
years (e.g. they are 60 and have 25 years service).
The union had argued that the government was putting forward the
changes in order to comply with the European Union's directive on
age discrimination, but had misunderstood the directive, and
produced flawed figures for the costs and benefits of the
change.
However, Andrew Nicol, QC, found in the government's favour. He
said the 85-year rule was discriminatory on grounds of age, but
even if officials had erred in their approach to the directive, the
government would have made the decision to end the rule for other
reasons anyway.
Unison said afterwards its campaign had always been about
"getting a decent pension scheme" and it would continue to pursue
every avenue, whether "legal, political or industrial".
