Union demands recognition at Standard Life AGM

Protesters demanding union recognition greeted delegates at Standard Life’s first annual general meeting as a public company today.

The Amicus union is also angry at changes made to the business’s company pension scheme since it floated last July, ending 80 years as a mutually owned company.

More than 20 union members gathered outside the AGM in Edinburgh, including one member dressed as a “city fat cat”, calling for Standard Life to recognise Amicus.

Dave Fleming, national officer for Amicus, said: “The situation is that they made a move to attack the staff pension scheme, making sweeping changes that really do effect the long-term benefits of employees.”

Mr Fleming said the union has gone from just a handful of members to more than 1,000 since demutualisation and the announcement of plans to scrap the company’s final salary pension scheme.

He claimed that two recent meetings had attracted more than 600 members of Standard Life staff.

“To have 600 people meet up for a trade union meeting in recent years is unprecedented considering this is a white collar sector, and it really does send a message to the company in itself,” he said.

“What I would say to the board is why have they done this with the pensions when they are making huge pay increases to staff and making huge profits?

“And why are they ignoring the fact that there’s an unprecedented ground swell of support for a union voice in the company?

“They are being very reluctant to meet and still we will believe their approach to us is very cynical until we hear otherwise.”

Standard Life directors point out to shareholders healthy results that have been made since the historic move last year, with share prices up nearly 50% since last year.

For the year ended December 2006, operating profit before tax rose by 55% to £614m (€903m) compared with the previous 12 months.

And performance into this year has also been strong, with funds under management at March 31 2007 up 10% to £42.4bn (€62.3bn).

At today’s AGM, shareholders are expected to vote to adopt the 2006 report and accounts, and approve directors’ remuneration and the make up of the board of directors.

The meeting will be the last with Brian Stewart as chairman, who will retire from the board later today, ending his three years as head of the group.

Stewart will be replaced by deputy chairman Gerry Grimston.

Standard Life customers and policyholders voted 98% in favour of a stock market floatation during a special general meeting in May last year.