Royal Mail have made it clear that they may close their pension scheme to current staff should the government continue to fail to take responsibility for the fund. The Government were intending to take on the scheme as part of a plan to privatise some of the Royal Mail by selling off a share. At this stage, no bidder has come forward, and the privatisation plan has been criticised by many.
A spokesman for the Communication Workers Union slammed the idea. He reportedly said: "It's a bizarre statement after the changes made last year, which were supposed to make the scheme more affordable. It would mean within the space of 18 months existing staff being moved from a final salary scheme to a career average one and then to a defined contribution scheme."
Royal Mail reportedly commented: "Closing the final salary pension scheme is not something we would want to consider, but we might have to as one of the possible consequences of the government deciding not to go ahead with their plans, including their proposals to take responsibility for the historic pension deficit ."




