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SIPTU delegation to Brussels calls on European Commission to end Irish Government’s ‘light touch’ regulation of occupational pensions

Date Released: 29 Apr 2009

A SIPTU delegation to Brussels met with the EU Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs and Equal Opportunities, Vladimir Spidla, today to raise their concerns about the SR Technics pension fund and ask the Commission to investigate the inadequate protection provided for workers generally. They also met with senior Commission staff dealing with pensions and the Insolvency Directive. They were told that the Commission would be raising the issues with the Irish Government shortly.

After the meeting SIPTU Branch Organiser Pat Ward said that, “We explained the situation facing SR TEchnics workers, where the company was being wound up and the owners were being allowed to walk away from a €26 million deficit in the pension fund, even though it is a solvent enterprise. We brought along Denis Dennehy, one of the workers at SR Technics, who has worked there and contributed to the pension fund for over 40 years and will be lucky if he receives half of what he is entitled to.”

The Head of SIPTU’s Legal Rights Unit, Michael Halpenny said, “We pointed out to the Commissioner and his senior officials that the 1980 Insolvency Directive was supposed to offer some level of protection to workers in this situation. We cited the Waterford Crystal case as a particularly blatant example of a situation where employees were left totally exposed by the collapse of the company.

“The United Kingdom government was found to be in breach of the Directive by the European Court of Justice in another insolvency case recently, even though it provided significantly more protection for workers than they enjoy here. We also pointed out that the UK pensions’ regulator can make a solvent company that is being wound up fund a deficit in the pension fund but that the Irish Pensions Board has no such powers.

“This defect in the light touch regulation of occupational pensions has been starkly illustrated by the SR Technics situation, where the extremely wealthy owners can walk away and leave employees like Denis Dennehy stranded. We asked the Commission to raise our concerns when they meet the Irish side.

“This situation where workers paying contributions all their working lives can be left totally exposed because the Government never bothered to put in place safeguards that exist in other EU member states cannot be allowed to continue. Ultimately it could cause social havoc, pauperising people who had worked hard all their lives.”