EC Meeting July 2022

General Secretary’s Report

Proposals for EC consideration appear in boldface.

July 2022.

1

Finances

1.1

Summary

2020’ s £300k loss at the hotel was transformed into a £200k profit last year and prospects for this year look good. We are on target for our £250k surplus. Housing remains fully occupied and rental revenues strong. We have to decide on the strength of our GFTU employers’ covenant for the pension scheme. We are in continuing discussion with a company called Stoneport about the prospects of moving our pension scheme into a consolidator and thereby reducing significantly our admin costs. The triennial pensions valuation is underway. The initial assumptions will have to be considered carefully. The investment strategy too.

All investment portfolios, the two from GFTU and the one from the pension scheme, have significantly dipped in value (around 10%) as a result of the current economic situation.

A ransom ware cyber-attack created substantial difficulties for us and a claim is being pursued against our ICT Provider. All ICT work is now completely moved to the cloud. A new CRM system has been installed.

Full management accounts and budgets are available along with notes of F&GP meetings.

Strategically the GFTU has to settle on a new status for itself as an organisation and to reduce costs on the pension scheme.

1.2

Pension scheme

A meeting has been arranged with PCS to discuss them leaving the scheme.

The pension scheme accounts, attached for information, have been approved.

The Trustees have now written to a range of pensions legal advisors with trade union experience to invite them to tender for our legal support work when Ivan Walker retires.

Training has been provided to Fiona on the pension scheme.

Ongoing discussions are being held with Stoneport about pensions consolidation.

The main task for this EC is to take a view on the strength of the GFTU covenant.

The Pension Trustees accepted in 2018 that our Covenant was strong. Because of the structure of the GFTU and its related group intercompany transactions, the situation is not entirely straightforward.

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