Paying into a pension fund scheme is a risky business for anyone. Cash it in, is my advice to anyone currently paying into pension fund.

Afraid not Jimmy. A friend of mine was paying into a pension for 5 years and was told along with many other employees on the same scheme that his pension was gone and the company had nothing to pay him with. Which makes it even more maddening was that this particular company was at the time making record profits and the top guys of the umbrella company were on salaries in the millions I kid you not! There’s no law to protect the little people like us. You need to be in ‘The Big Boys club’ to get all your entitlements and to get your full pension. The above story is shocking and I really feel angry on behalf of those workers in Guineys.

@Slap stick
That is just stupid you can’t cash it in. if you are in a work scheme and you leave you can only leave it there if you are there more than 12 months you can only leave it there or transfer your own payments to another scheme this sort of sensationalist reaction will only make people worse off in retirement I’m sure the majority of pension scheme are perfectly well looked after

@Fergus, i cashed mine in a few years ago, only got back 60%, better than getting 0%. So Fergus, how is that “Stupid” ?

Id find out who was responsible and id make them pay. Torture and the to be skinned alive is the only thing for them. The sooner this kind of thinghappens the quicker people see the deterent. Our public reps have let us down, its time to take it into our own hands.

JIMMY this is more than a disgrace ,there is no law for the little people in this country .,

That’s the biggest kick in the balls ever!

Good idea.

Terrible idea.
New owners have nothing to do with guineys.
You might as well boycott Arnotts.

did the new owners create the problem? were they involved with the old owners? if not, surely there are another couple of hundred heading for the dole with a boycott?

@ A O’Brien. Fat cat unions are to blame for the pension mess in the private sector. When they decided to get into bed with Bertie Aherns gang, the private sector workers were left to fend for themselves.

Because they can get away with it.

How are the unions responsible for the pensions? Honest question, I can’t see the link, surely they are seperate bodies

Vocal, they are part of the problem.
A real union in any other country would bring the city to a standstill over this kind of abuse of rights and theft.
private or public, the unions exist to protect workers.
They are not doing it.

Silly comment rodrigo. Unions want proper pension schemes for ALL workers, not just union members.

Jim

I am never surprised at the misunderstandings that exist around Pension Funds and such misconceptions frequently include the actual members of the Fund who get a statement of its affairs every year from the Trustees. This has been a legal requirement for many years and is rigidly enforces by the Pension Board.
It looks as if the Guiney Pension Scheme was paying out to pensioners and in the last few years of poor trading was unable to make up deficits that built up in the fund due to over reliance on the stock market. Uniquely in Ireland and the UK lazy and poor quality Companies managing pension funds for organisation like Clerys and Guineys invested more than two thirds of the monies into stocks and shares while in the rest of Europe that was never more than a third. Trustees of these firms are never bright enough to see the dangers and voila………
Every employee of Guineys has been aware of this difficulty for years……..and there is no point in asking Clerys to stump up money because their situation is exactly the same.

I absolutely agree, this is disgraceful. There is not enough regulation and enforcement if this is allowed to happen. There should be a full investigation into how pension funds are being run, if people are paying into a fund long term the least they should expect is that their money is safe and will provide a return. I hope the government make a statement on this, this cannot be allowed to go on.

History shows that it can very well end up like that, Apalling treatment of people and their hard earned money. You can be certain that the bonuses earned by the “financial experts” that handled the fund won’t be handed back though.

I heard I think it was American trend forecaster Gerald Celente who was also stiffed by a leading financial institution a few months ago refer to the word Justice as Just-us as the law will never be there to look after or protect the normal person on the street.

Werejammin. You are deluded if you think the unions in this country care about workers anymore. They are part of the big gang now. Just ask SIPTU why they’re not being investigated about the missing millions given to them by Bertie’s Government.

Hate to break it to you rodrigo, but unions ARE the workers. Thats why if you’re in a union you are referred to as a member. Its operation is paid for by union members, the motions are set by members and voted on by members. Now, you may take issue with underhanded dealings between corrupt taoiseachs and union top brass, I do myself, but a union in actuality is merely the sum part of its members, its influence is merely the ability of its members to withdraw their labour as a block and any major decisions taken by it is decided on by same.

@werejammin.

In what you say you are correct. But, what lets the unions down are the actions and the “I’m alright Jack” attitude of it’s most senior officials, who seem to be totally unaccountable.

Last time I was in a union was 10 years ago. It was about as useless as a chocolate tea pot. Very militant over the smallest perceived infringements.

Cleary’s has been purchased by another company who are not responsible for the pensions for the employees of Guineys. The pension trustees are that should be held responsible for this fiasco.

They are Separate entities now my friend so ur action is illogical…new owners have nothing to do with this

How about organising a proper protest that excludes public sector unions, because no matter what you hear about us all being in this together, it’s complete lies. The private sector workers in this country are being driven into the ground , whilst Croke park protects the Government and its workers. Maybe this is the last straw.

Change the record rodrigo…. What’s this got to do with public sector employees?? Also, what is a public sector union??? Siptu, unite etc all have private sector members!!

Why Clery’s?
Why not Arnotts and Dunnes too?

Separate entities-wat would that do? highly stupid comments to make…do you know them?

Rossa
What per World War 1 pit have you been dragged from. The Company that have bought the debts of Clery’s have saved the Company and many of the jobs there and have no legal ethical moral or social obligations towards the staff of other Companies that have been limping into economic obscurity for nearly a generation. What sort of tortured mind do you have that now wants to damage the future prospects of staff at the Company with a boycott.
You’re some pink retard.

Because employees pensions do not belong to the company and therefore should not be included in any company assets when liquidating.and if the pensions are included then clearly this underlines the importance of tighter regulation. Why should your money as an employee be at risk or seized as an asset? If you gave ur money to a company and asked them to invest it for you, that money still belongs to you. That’s the general gist.

@ahmed. When a DB scheme fails the assets of the scheme are set aside for the members who are in recipt of their pension at that time. ie: former employess who are now retired and receiving benefits from the scheme. The company can never include their pension scheme in company assets when liquidating.

So you reckon 30 yrs of pension contributions down the drain is fine because there is unemployment benefit?????

What are you talking about Tom? Unemployment benefit is paid to people who are unemployed. It’s got nothing to do with workers pension entitlements. Why was Clerys allowed to be taken over without the pension deficit being tackled? And why are employees being made to wait until after Christmas to receive their statutory entitlements? I mean its not as if the company has completely closed down.

Back under your bridge troll!

Moronic.

We don’t know that Clery’s was taken on without tackling the pension deficit. This is Guiney’s, I’m presuming that the company used the pension fund for trying to stay afloat. Usually pension funds are very reliable in fact, purely because of the nature of what that fund is meant to do. Using pension funds is actually very common – the Irish government has used the PS fund for things like roads, schools etc.
The unfortunate thing here is that saving the company didn’t work, and there are staff left with effectively no financial security in their future – I’m not sure that it should’ve been allowed – but it was. Ethics in business comes to mind. Knowing when to stop backing a dead horse.

The company should not have been able to get anywhere near the employee pension funds. The trustees of the pension would appear to have a lot of questions to answer here if this is the case. Pension funds are not allowed to be used as emergency capital for any private company.