Siptu fights Pfizer bid to take 1,000 staff off defined benefit pension scheme

Trade union Siptu is resisting attempts by Pfizer to shut down its defined benefit — DB — pension scheme for 1,000 Irish employees.

The drug producer has made the move after describing its pension scheme as “unsustainable” and “not fit for purpose”.

It told the Labour Court that over the last five years its DB members had cost it an additional €10m.

Pfizer employs 3,200 people in Ireland, and with 2,200 already having been moved to defined contribution pensions, it wants to move the remaining 1,000 employees at its Ringaskiddy and Little Island operations in Cork, as well as its global financial and sales divisions, from the DB schemes.

A Pfizer spokeswoman said it proposed to close its employee non-contributory defined-benefit pension schemes from 2018.

“This change is part of a global initiative as the environment for DB plans has become very challenging due to the increasing cost and volatility of these types of pension plans,” she said.

“In Ireland, the cost to the company of funding these non-contributory schemes has tripled between 2012 and 2014 and these increases are not sustainable,” she said, adding that the proposals do not affect pensioners.

Siptu told the Labour Court the DB scheme “is in a healthy position and it is not in deficit”.

The court said the unions should engage with management to agree new pension schemes that “meet the twin objectives of aligning the company’s needs and the benefits contained in the current scheme”.