U.K. Unions Say Three-Quarters of Workers Don’t Have Pensions

U.K. trade unions called on Prime Minister Tony Blair to make company pension plans compulsory after a study showed three out of four workers for private businesses don’t have retirement coverage.The Trades Union Congress, an umbrella organization that represents 7 million unionized workers in Britain, said membership in company pension plans decreased 15 percent in the last four years. The TUC wants the government to compel all employers to make a pension fund payment equal to 10 percent of a worker’s earnings, and workers to contribute 5 percent.“If the trend continues unchecked, within 20 years only one in 10 employees will be members of an occupational pension,” TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber told reporters in Brighton, England, where the labor organizationÆs annual conference begins today. Government plans to encourage pension savings have so far been an “abject failure.”

Read more atBloomberg.com–UK