Talks start on ROH pensions

Managers of the Royal Opera House have begun talks with BECTU over a potential pensions crisis.

Union negotiators met ROH executives on November 3 to discuss proposed changes to benefits after the company announced it was expecting a shortfall of at least £8.2 million in its pension fund.

Management said that because of an Arts Council funding squeeze, the ROH could not afford to put an extra 11% of its payroll bill into the fund each year - one of the suggested solutions to the deficit.

Company contributions to the pension fund are currently 15% of payroll, with a further 6% being contributed by staff.

Instead, the company has begun consultation with staff in the pension scheme on a package of changes which include closing it to new staff joiners, increasing staff contributions, reducing the proportion of salaries which count towards pensions, and limiting annual increases in pensions being paid.

The crisis talks were prompted by early indications that an interim valuation of the Opera House pension scheme, due in January 2007, will reveal a significant deficit in assets compared to liabilities.

Like many other UK pension schemes, the ROH fund has been hit by reduced investment returns, and rising life expectancy among pensioners.

BECTU is expecting the ROH to provide detailed information about its pension woes, and further meetings with management are planned.

In many other areas of the broadcasting and media industry, BECTU is already in talks with employers about pension problems.

The BBC this month closed its final-salary pension scheme to new joiners, its technology provider Siemens announced a major review of its pension provision, with a possibility of benefits being reduced, and a row is rumbling on with the Corporation's premises management company Johnson Controls International, which has denied ex-BBC staff the right to contribute to a final-salary scheme.

Elsewhere, pensions at ITV and its news provider ITN, are under discussion, and talks are also underway with NGT, one of the UK's TV transmission companies.