Fire Bridges Union wins permission to challenge govt’s pension reforms via judicial review
Public sector workers’ unions have been given permission to challenge a UK government’s pensions policy through a judicial review.
A coalition of unions, led by the UK’s Fire Brigades Union (FBU), will be allowed to challenge the government’s decision to force members to pay for changes to public sector pensions schemes, instead of footing the £17bn bill itself.
The permission comes after the Court of Appeals in 2019 ruled that the coalition government’s 2015 public sector pensions reforms unlawfully discriminated against younger workers, as they allowed older workers to remain in their existing, defined benefit (DB) pensions scheme.
In response to the Court of Appeals ruling, the government then sought to push the cost of remedying the situation onto members of the new and reformed pensions scheme itself.
In a claim being led by the FBU, public sector unions are now challenging the government’s decision to shift the cost of the remedy, with a view to launching a judicial review. The unions will seek to argue the remedy itself is discriminatory against younger workers.
Mark Rowe, FBU national officer, said the government’s plans are an “attempt to heap the burden for these dreadful pension mistakes on workers,” as he noted the union has “been challenging the government on these pension reforms since 2015 and winning time and time again.”
“It is high time the government finally got its act together and sorted this out once and for all, which is entirely within their gift,” Rowe said. “However, if they don’t, we will pursue this case for as long as it takes to win firefighters what they deserve.”