Strike action and your pension

Any whole days of strike action for which you are not paid are not counted as pension scheme membership and don't count towards the calculation of your pension benefits.

Your Employer has no discretion about this – these are the rules laid down in the regulations. It is possible to buy back the membership you lose, at your own cost, but the rules are quite tight:

• you must buy back all the days you have lost, not just a proportion;
• you have to pay both the employer's and your own contributions, which is calculated as 16% of the gross pensionable pay that you would have received if not on strike
• the extra contributions will be deducted from pay. Normally this is as a single payment, but the employer has the discretion to spread it over a longer period.

Either the Pension Office or Payroll Section of your employer can give you a form to fill in and send back, if this is what they want to do. Think carefully – once you have made the decision, you can't change your mind.

Please contact your payroll section if you want an estimate of how much you will have to pay. You have 30 days from the date you return to work (your employer might let you have longer) to make up your mind. In most cases, the effect of a short strike on your pension is going to be too small for buying back to be worthwhile, though you might want to consider it if you were involved in lengthy action.

Example

Let's assume you had 10 years' membership and pensionable earnings of £15,000, and were on strike for six days.

If you decided to buy back, you would need to pay (£15,000 ÷ 365 x 6) x 16% = £39.45. If you did buy back, and retired two years later at normal retirement age on the same earnings, buying back would mean you had a pension of £3 a year more, and a lump sum of £9 more, than if you did not do so.

What if this is my last working year?

If you were to take strike action in your last working year (your final year of membership in the pension scheme), you would also have your benefits (annual pension and any lump sum you were entitled to) calculated on a slightly reduced pay figure. If your pension could be affected by this, it's likely your union would not expect you to strike.

Please contact your payroll section for more information.