Employment News

BT Pensions: Member Nominated Trustees

13 November 2007 (updated 7 December 2007 and 14 March 2008)

The law regulating the arrangements for Member Nominated Trustees (MNT) has changed as part of the Pensions Act 2004.

The responsibility for agreeing MNT arrangements has now passed to the trustee bodies themselves. The Pension Regulator has also issued a Code of Practice on MNT selection arrangements that suggests that all MNT arrangements must be transparent, proportional and treat all members fairly.

BT Pension Scheme (BTPS) Trustees

The CWU has been in talks with the BTPS trustees, Connect and the UNITE (previously the Federation of Royal Mail and BT pensioners) to review our existing arrangements for the selection of BTPS MNTs, who are known as Member Nominated Directors (MNDs). A procedure has been agreed by the BTPS Trustee. The revised arrangements ensure that the BTPS MNDs will continue to be nominated by the CWU/Connect.

CWU and Connect intend to re-nominate our existing MNDs: Bill McClory, Donald MacDonald, Chris Long and Howard Marchant. Unite also supports these re-nominations.

BT Retirement Plan (BTRP) Trustees

The CWU has been in talks with the BTRP Trustees and Connect to review our existing arrangements for the selection of MNTs. A procedure has now been agreed with the BTRP Trustees. The revised arrangements ensure that the BTRP MNTs will continue to be nominated by the CWU/Connect.

CWU and Connect intend to re-nominate our existing MNTs: Andy Kerr (CWU) and Aveen McHugh (Connect).