Waterford pensions - Workers are exposed

WATERFORD WEDGWOOD workers worried about their jobs are also worried about their pensions... but only if they work in Ireland.

Compared to the company’s employees in Britain, workers in Ireland are in an invidious position. Hundreds of current and former Waterford-based employees could lose all or part of their pension as a result of the company’s collapse. There is a shortfall of €147.9m between assets and pension needs. The company’s annual report does not detail the split of benefits between workers in Britain — whose benefits are partly guaranteed by the Pension Protection Fund — and Irish workers, who have no safety net at all.

The Irish Pension Regulator has pointed out that a green paper that suggested a pension insurance scheme was published in October 2007, but that the proposal had not been advanced in Dublin.