Employees

Pensions are back in the news, big time. Adair Turner's well-researched effort to generate a national debate encounters immediate political flak over the public spending implications. Attempts to delay the retirement age of public sector workers - one of the few groups not (yet?) having their final salary schemes challenged - get caught up in the long-running Number 10/Number 11 soap opera. Meanwhile British Gas engineers astutely chose the Christmas period to strike over closure of their final salary scheme to new entrants - with their union general secretary, GMB's Kevin Curran, reminding the public about 'fat cat' executive pay and pensions. And as we go to press, Rentokil becomes the first FTSE 100 company to close its final pension scheme, in a move that would freeze benefits of existing members. CSR managers might be forgiven for feeling this is much too big an issue for them, and not one for their CSR reports. But they are not known for shirking fundamental questions, like the future sustainability of the planet, and these reports surely only serve a purpose if they raise and debate 'difficult' issues. Indeed we've argued before that at the heart of CSR has to be a debate about who gets the money. So our recommendation, as many of our readers return from the New Year break to struggle with drafting this year's CSR report, is be sure to include a section on pensions. Be sure to include an 'added value' chart showing how much is earned by employees, and this time show how much goes on immediate pay and how much as pension contributions. And we'll offer a prize to the first mainstream report that tackles the thorny issue of differentials between the earnings of senior executives and the bulk of the workforce. Annual reports now have multiple pages on board remuneration - funny that CSR reports don't mention it once.