EC Meeting July 2022

AS I am a Trustees of the Scheme and three other EC members are Trustees it Is appropriate to request an independent covenant assessment and to ask Fiona and Preeti in the office to manage this work. The notes below are I hope just by way of background. As a stand alone body, the GFTU employer is dependent on subscription income and other income from win win services. It has two investment portfolios which have recently declined in value due to the economic situation. The GFTU Has lent money to the Educational Trust which owns the land and building of the Quorn site. The loan to the Educational Trust of some £7m could theoretically be reclaimed, although we have declared that we will not do so in 2022 as this would obviously collapse the Trust and require it to sell its property. Our lack of ownership of property also means that it is not possible to put a charge over assets to strengthen our covenant, although we could consider arranging something with the Trust to this effect, this would require a legal deed, and could for example be a charge over the offices or the houses, meaning if the GFTU as an employer needed to liquidate assets to support the pension scheme it could sell one of these properties. The GFTU itself does not own assets so would have to have an arrangement with the Trust, which as a charity it may not be in a position to actually make. So to convince the pension scheme Trustees, and by default the pensions regulator as to the nature of its covenant the following factors have to be born in mind perhaps. The GFTU has raised its subscription fees and retained affiliates and recruited new ones. The massively improved performance of the hotel and safely predicted future business mean that the loans paid to the hotel in 2020 have been repaid and that regular repayments of other previous loans are being paid back. The provision of services to affiliates creates a steady and potentially increasing flow of income. One new service for example should generate around £31k over the next year. There is a general rebirth of trade unionism taking place and the GFTU Is recognised as an important part of this and this should put it in good stead for growth. The Education Trust hs now more serious prospects of raising additional funds and this in turn would ease financial pressure on the GFTU going forward. The overall security of all of the GFTU Interests, except for the current performance of the investment portfolios, is, it seems to me, stronger that at the time of the last covenant.

1.3

Annual Accounts

See attached.

2

Education

2.1

This has been an important and positive period.

We have been functioning without a national education officer for a number of years now. I propose that we ask the F&GP to bring back proposals concerning this.

2.2

Working Class History

Our joint courses with the WEA have engaged nearly 300 people in fascinating workshops on aspects of our history. Discussions will be held concerning future prospects. A big thank you to the excellent facilitators who gave their time to the GFTU gratis.

2.3

Economics Seminars

A total of 350 people signed up for our first three seminars. AS with all online events fewer actually turned up on the day. But we have retained recordings for wider use.

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