How long at messages kept on my bb bold 900. i save them and on my previous bb it said - this message saved for 7 days so i could just re-save evry 7

I attended a one day EC meeting yesterday for pensions. We got a full update on meetings and progress since the last EC meeting in December 2011. Below is the current position but is liable to change so please do not circulate I will be giving verbal reports to the brigade/regional committee meetings. General As we know CLG have set the cost ceiling but it was set based on a retirement age of 60 despite all the evidence we have provided to the contrary. The General Secretary and negotiating team met with the Fire Minister on the 15th December, he informed the FBU that other unions were signing a heads of agreement paper by the 20th December 2011. They asked the FBU to sign this and pledge that we would not take industrial action whilst discussions were taking place. The FBU did not agree to either of these requests. We reiterated to the Fire Minister that there had not been any movement on specific issues relating to the new scheme design such as retirement age, commutation factor and not enough detail on protection arrangements. We also pointed out that we felt the cost ceilings were flawed because they have been set using the retirement age of 60 and very conservative drop out rates (1%) which our evidence shows is far to low. The improved accrual rate of 1/57th has added 5% onto the cost ceiling. The Government have set a deadline of the 20th January 2012 for the FBU to sign a heads of agreement document. We cannot sign the heads of agreement with what is currently being offered by the Government for the new pension scheme design. The cost ceilings which have been set are not enough to deliver an acceptable scheme for firefighters. The FBU is continuing with the current discussions and will not walk away from them. We hope that progress can be made – although we are not optimistic unless there is a change to the Governments position. The EC will be reconvened on the 23rd January 2012, following consultation with brigade and regional committees to consider reports from our negotiators. Regional committees will need to meet to hear a report back from the EC meeting and to consider the next steps open to us. Timetable 10th January 2012 – Meeting with Fire Minister 15th January 2012 – meeting with CLG 18th January FPC meeting Protection Arrangements The Government announced that everyone within 10 years of retirement from 1/4/12 would be protected (those pension scheme members who are age 45 on or before the 1/4/12). This is the NRA of 55 and by the time the new pension scheme starts on the 1st April 2015 this will be reduced to 7 years protection. In addition there will be 3-4 years tapering protection, which means that individuals will get some protection arrangements from the old scheme. Despite the FBU raising the issue of retirement age the Government will not confirm if firefighters can still retire at the age of 50. Those members who have bought in or had a transfer value when joining the FPS will not get this re valued it will remain the same as when they joined. Contribution rates for the new scheme Government have confirmed that the new proposed scheme will have an employee contribution rate of 13.2%. This would mean that by 1/4/2015 FPS members will be paying £52 a month more NFPS members will be paying £110 a month more. This contribution rate of 13.2% has been worked out by working out the current employee weighted average contribution rate (NFPS and FPS) which is 10%. Then they have added the 3.2% contribution rate increase (current proposal) making 13.2% (The LGA have proposed that the FBU should consider that those who are afforded the protection arrangements should pay an additional 1% making the total 14.2% contribution rate so the 13.3% could be slightly lower) FBU Position We will continue to argue that it is not possible to have an occupational retirement age of 60 as this is not achievable by most firefighters. Those not joining the scheme (drop outs) will be high and undermine the whole pension scheme. (currently in London 16% of new starters do not join the NFPS) FBU members pay the highest of all public sector schemes in contribution rates Regional Position We need to make sure that all the brigade committees have met and a recall Regional Committee has taken place. The following Brigade Committees are already programmed in:- 10th January – Leicestershire 12th January - Derbyshire 18th January – Notts We need to make sure both Lincolnshire and Northamptonshire organise a meeting (Gary can you sort that please) Regional Executive- I would like to hold a Regional Executive on Monday 9th at 9-30am at the Whitehouse Hotel junction 24 M1 Can you let me know if you can attend? Finally following on from the brigade committees we need a recall Regional Committee as near to the 24th as possible, as there may be changes to report prior to the EC meeting. I would like to call this on Thursday the 19th January at the regional office 10am, one item on the agenda pensions. Please let me know what you think