Latest news with #Mineworkers'PensionScheme
Scotsman
01-05-2025
- Business
- Scotsman
Labour is making life easier for working people
Today marks the first day of summer and while I can't make any promises about the weather, there is a sunny future for working people across Scotland. Sign up to our daily newsletter Sign up Thank you for signing up! Did you know with a Digital Subscription to Edinburgh News, you can get unlimited access to the website including our premium content, as well as benefiting from fewer ads, loyalty rewards and much more. Learn More Sorry, there seem to be some issues. Please try again later. Submitting... May Day is an opportunity to celebrate the labour movement that built our country and to recognise the working people who keep it running every day. While for years Scots have been let down by successive Conservative and SNP governments, working people in Scotland finally have a UK Labour government that will put them first. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad Just look at the Employment Rights Bill. The package of reforms will transform the world of work and deliver the most ambitious upgrade to employment rights in a generation. Every Labour government delivers stronger rights for working people. It's what Labour governments do. This Labour government is no different. The Bill will introduce a range of family-friendly rights for employees, including new protections from dismissal for pregnant women and a right to unpaid bereavement leave and will make entitlements to paternity leave and unpaid parental leave take effect from the first day of employment. Moreover, it will ban exploitative zero-hours contracts, end the scandalous practice of fire and rehire, improve access to sick pay and reinforce tipping laws. A 21st century employment rights package for a 21st century world of work. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad It stands to benefit businesses too. As a former business owner myself, I know that a healthier, happier workforce means a more productive workforce. Stress, depression or anxiety accounted for 17.1 million working days lost across the UK in 2022/2023. This is costing businesses every day. It's part of our broader plan to make work pay and put more money in people's pockets. That's why we also increased the minimum wage by 6.7 per cent, delivering a pay rise for over 200,000 Scots. And to recognise the contribution of the working people who built our country, we ended the injustice of the Mineworkers' Pension Scheme, increasing the value of pensions for former pit workers by an average of £1500 a year for each pensioner or dependent, benefitting 7800 former mineworkers across Scotland. The contrast with the SNP could not be starker. While they stood idly by for years as the Grangemouth refinery was slowly wound down, Labour has allocated £200 million towards its industrial future on top of a £100m local growth deal. For 18 years, the SNP have paid lip service to Scotland's industries and workers but have taken very little action. Just look at the contracts for new ferries and wind turbines that have been sent abroad, and the slashing of the skills and further education budgets. Advertisement Hide Ad Advertisement Hide Ad And while Labour acted decisively to protect the UK's primary steelmaking capability, they used hundreds of millions of pounds of public money to underwrite the sale of Scotland's remaining steel industry in a failed deal which has delivered only 40 of 2000 promised jobs and left workers effectively furloughed sitting at home. Scotland's steel industry deserves better. So, this May Day, let's celebrate that Scotland has one government that will always put working people first, and a chance next year to elect Anas Sarwar and make it two. Ian Murray, MP for Edinburgh South and Secretary of State for Scotland
BBC News
09-02-2025
- Politics
- BBC News
'People are dying', say ex-miners waiting for pension cash
Several former mineworkers have expressed anger after a senior minister said they would have to wait until later this year to find out if they will receive some of the surplus money in their pension Rachel Reeves announced in last year's Budget members of the Mineworkers' Pension Scheme (MPS) would receive extra said it would mean "working people who powered our country receive the fair pension they are owed".But there was no mention of the British Coal Staff Superannuation Scheme (BCSSS), which includes ex-miners as members along with people who held other roles in the industry. Speaking to BBC East Midlands Today, the chief secretary to the Treasury, Darren Jones, indicated there would be an announcement in the next Budget, saying "we'll be able to say more towards the end of the year". 'We don't have time' But former miner Dave Drury, who worked at Welbeck Colliery in Nottinghamshire, said he was angry at the minister's comments."It's just somebody sat down with a pen who just needs to sign that off," he said."Probably 2,000 miners a year are dying of old age and respiratory mining-related diseases. "They ain't got time to wait. It's six-a-day I think it works out at. So whoever's got the pen, get it signed."After 14 years at the coalface, Mr Drury became a training officer for a year and his pension was transferred from the MPS to the BCSSS."We were all fighting together, but I do think it's as simple as someone's looked down at a piece of paper and seen 'mineworkers' pensions' and they've added the word 'scheme' on the end," he said."And adding that word 'scheme' has excluded the BCSSS." Of the roughly 40,000 BCSSS members, about 40% are Smith, who worked at the Coal Board, based in Mansfield, said: "It's not government money, it's not taxpayers' money, it's the scheme members' money and we'll like that money back to improve our standard of living."We're losing five or six members a day so every day that this gets dragged out more people are not going to benefit and I don't think that's fair."Mansfield's Labour MP Steve Yemm – whose constituency contains the highest number of BCSSS members in the country – also questioned why it was taking so long."This requires a signature by a civil servant to sign over the reserve, and I can't really understand why it would take any length of time to do that," he was one of 41 Labour MPs from coalfield constituencies who wrote a letter to Darren Jones in January, warning "the matter of securing pension justice for mining communities remains incomplete"."We urge you to prioritise this issue and address it without delay," they Jones argued there were various issues still to be said: "You've got to do the work around how much money is in the scheme, how much is guaranteed for pensioners, what's the risk profile."All of those conversations for the Mineworkers' Pensions Scheme had happened before the election…which is why we could move quickly."Jones confirmed that the government was in "active conversations" with the BCSSS trustees and asked if that meant there would be an announcement in the next Budget, he said: "That would be a time to pay attention, yes."
