Emergency Resolution:
Sir Fred Goodwin's Pension

submitted by
UNISON Scotland

This Conference rejects the idea that the pension of £695,000 a year to which Sir Fred Goodwin feels he is entitled is a reasonable reward for a job successfully done. In common with every ordinary person and in opposition to the class of "Masters of the Universe" like Sir Fred Goodwin, Conference finds such excessive greed simply obscene.

Conference supports the government in pursuing every legal means to ensure Fred Goodwin and his like are not rewarded for the massive failure they have brought to our economy through their reckless pursuit of profit at all costs. The collapse of the banking sector for which Sir Fred Goodwin and his fellow directors have been responsible is evidence of the failure of the neoliberal free market ideology.

Conference believes that, in contrast to the Sir Fred Goodwins of this world, ordinary, hard working citizens deserve their pensions, to which they themselves have each contributed, after a lifetime's service.

Conference rejects the myth of "gold plated" final salary public sector pensions which is peddled by right wing business front organisations such as the Taxpayer's Alliance. This myth is taken up by the Tories and other political parties and unscrupulous employers to attack the hard earned pension rights of millions of ordinary workers.

The reality is that local government workers can expect on average a pension of around £3,800 per year, one half of one percent of the Goodwin figure.

The real pensions divide is not between public sector and private sector workers as the Tories and their allies claim. It is between ordinary workers whose modest pensions are under attack and high flying directors, who like Sir Fred Goodwin, believe they are entitled to ever increasing pension settlements based on inflated salaries and bonuses at their own discretion.

Conference calls for government to end the fat cat bonus culture and rewards for failure; to establish comprehensive, active and independent regulation of financial markets in the service of people rather than profit; to protect and defend the well-deserved pensions of ordinary public service workers; and to act to ensure fair and decent pensions for all workers in retirement.