Unions Criticise Pensions Gap

Unions have criticised the widening pensions gap between company directors and their staff after a report found that the UK's top bosses share a pot of £900m.

A survey of 102 companies conducted by the Trades Union Congress (TUC), which included Marks & Spencer, BP and Royal Bank of Scotland, found the average executive can retire at 60 on a final salary pension worth more than £3m, up £300,000 in a year.This figure represents an annual pension of £193,000, more than 25 times the average UK worker's pension of £7,500, according to the TUC.

For the highest paid directors of the top UK firms, the average pension is worth £5.3m, up £400,000 in a year. This represents 42 times more than most staff pensions, and an increase of 10% since last year, said the TUC.

The biggest final salary pension pot in the survey exceeds £21m, £2m above the largest sum in 2006, while five directors have a pension pot worth more than £12m.The TUC survey found that while 59% of those participating companies have closed their final salary pensions for workers but more than 79% had left them open for Directors.

TUC General Secretary Brendan Barber said: 'Britain's boardroom bonanza does not stop on retirement. Too many top directors have gone on closing or cutting schemes for their workforce, while keeping gold-plated pensions for themselves.