Page 8 - Insight edition 1 2017

Pension’s Update from the

Deputy Secretary

Dave Sim highlights the differences between the recent Judges
Pension ruling, and our own schemes.

Dave Sim - Deputy Chairman
Merseyside Police Federation You protect us.

An employment tribunal ruled on 16 January 2017 that What are the next steps? We protect you.
the government’s transitional pension arrangements • The Ministry of Justice has appealed. This will go forward to an
EAT (Employment Appeal Tribunal)
for judges amount to unlawful age discrimination. • Should the EAT uphold the original judgement the Ministry of
Justice may have to remove the unfairness.
So, what was the case about?
The case was solely about transitional protections, and whether There are a number of ways the Ministry might do so:
these caused direct discrimination by age, and indirect by gender 1. The Ministry could offer all judges the same protection that At Slater and Gordon, we Legal services:
and ethnicity. members with transitional protection get, at an additional understand that police work
• There was no challenge to the legality of the introduction of a £80,000,000. (The same across the whole public sector would • Crime and misconduct allegations
new judges’ pension scheme. can be challenging and stressful,
cost billions of pounds).
• The ET judge acknowledged that there is no statutory ban on 2. The unfairness has been deemed to be with those receiving but with us by your side, dealing • Personal injury claims - on or off duty
reducing pensions and pay.
• The judge was very clear that he was not ruling on wider public transitional protections having been treated better (in the ET with legal issues needn’t be. • Family law
judge’s view) than they might have been, one option may be to
sector pensions’ reform, as this is a matter of public policy. remove transitional protections completely.
For over 50 years, we have • Employment law
What are transitional protections? This would reduce the cost – possibly by £28,000,000, for judges
Transitional protections are a mechanism that was introduced alone and significantly more across the entire public sector. been defending, advising and • Police pensions
across the public sector to protect members. Unfortunately if this latter course is taken, more members of the representing thousands of police

pension scheme lose out. Ultimately it could mean no member of • Wills, trusts and estates
The aim is to ensure those members who cannot remain entirely the pensions’ scheme will gain from the claimants’ win, in this ET. officers just like you.
in “old” schemes, but who have fewer years to serve before • Defamation and privacy matters
retirement, are given arrangements to help them adjust. The What is the Federation doing? With offices throughout the UK,
rationale was that these members would already have based “We continue to monitor the situation,” said General Secretary
future plans on an expectation of a certain pension pot. Andy Fittes. “We continue to believe that transitional protections we are the only firm to offer a

are a good thing, and are deeply disappointed that this case may full range of legal services to
There are three types of scheme members: have consequences that the litigants did not anticipate, and that
• Those solely in the old scheme. would cause pension scheme members to lose money. We believe the Police Federation.
• Those in the new scheme but with transitional protections. transitional protections offer a better pension for more members.
• Those solely in the new scheme.

What does the judgement say? The judges’ position is different
The judgement does not state that judges only subject to the “.
new scheme (without protection) or in the old scheme have in many respects from the police
been treated illegally.
It only states that those judges afforded transitional protection have position. However, it remains to

been treated in a way that causes discrimination. The ET judge
goes further, and states that those with transitional protection have be seen whether – in fighting the GET IN TOUCH
been treated better than they could have been. When considering
whether transitional protections were a proportionate means to one common element of schemes, 0808 175 7805
achieve a legitimate aim, the ET judge considers they may have
been “excessive” and states that an option might have been to the transitional protection – the
simply follow Hutton’s recommendation that accrued rights 24h Criminal Assistance number:
under the old scheme be protected. The judges’ schemes both litigants have opened the door to 0800 908 977
protected old rights and offered transitional protection. (As do
the police schemes). poorer pension provision in the slatergordon.co.uk/police-law

The judge states that in conceding that transitional protections public sector.
were needed, the employer failed to seek or providence sufficient
evidence of need. ” Slater and Gordon (UK) LLP is authorised and regulated by the Solicitors Regulation Authority.

8 Insight Magazine of Merseyside Police Federation - Issue 1 of 2017 • www.merpolfed.org.uk Insight Magazine of Merseyside Police Federation - Issue 1 of 2017 • www.merpolfed.org.uk 9