CWPS Construction Workers Pension, Scheme or Scam

national | worker & community struggles and protests | opinion/analysis Friday October 10, 2008 21:21 by Whistleblower

CWPS Construction Workers Pension, Scheme or Scam

CWPS Construction Workers Pension, Scheme or Scam

The Construction Workers Pension Scheme known as CWPS, is the pension all workers and their employers in the construction sector are forced to join. This is because the Construction Sector is governed by a Registered Employment Agreement commonly known as a REA.

A Registered Employment Agreement is an agreement that governs terms, conditions and wages for a particular sector. It is entered into by employer bodies and trade unions.

It can be varied and usually is annually and once an increase is agreed on, all sides attend the Labour court to have it rubber stamped, at which point it becomes legally binding.

The REA for the Construction Sector requires that all employees at the age of 20 are signed up to the Construction Workers Pension Scheme, known as CWPS which covers, Pension, Death in Service and Sick Pay.

Both employer and employee are compelled to pay, the employer pays 60% and the employee 40% of the contribution.

The elements for the CWPS in the Electrical Sector work out like this

Employer
Pension Contribution 29.09
Death In Service €1.11
Sick Pay €1.34
Benevolent Fund €0.19
EPACE €0.38

Employee
Pension €18.73
Sick Pay €1.11
Sick Pay €0.67
Health Trust (CWHT) €1.00
Benevolent Fund €0.50
EPACE €0.38

Health Trust/Benevolent Fund/ EPACE Ltd
The above charges currently collected by CWPS are not required by the REA, however when you call CWPS, an employer is not told this, and nowhere on the CWPS literature, or on their web site does it point out that these charges are not mandatory. Consequently the majority of employers and employees are not aware that they are handing over extra charges not required by the REA to CWPS.

EPACE Ltd
This is a private limited company set up to police the REA by the parties who are signatories to the REA for the Electrical Industry.
TEEU Technical Engineering Union
AECI Association of Electrical Contractors of Ireland (Employer body currently representing 360 employers).
ECA Electrical Contractors Association (Employer body currently representing 55 employers).
Note The two employer bodies represent lower than 10% of employers in the industry. So here we have two employer bodies entering into an agreement with the TEEU that effect the other 90% of us that have no input.
EPACE Ltd claim in their accounts to be a non profit organisation, however have continually filed huge profits since inception. Their 2006 accounts had a balance carried forward of €722,192.00
EPACE Ltd, are non statutory, and unregulated, they have no powers of inspection.

Monies sent to EPACE Ltd by the Construction Workers Pension Scheme.
As you can see from the chart above .38 cent for employer and employee is collected weekly by the pension CWPS and forwarded to EPACE Ltd, this is not a requirement of the REA.

Money sent to The Health Trust (CWHT)by the Construction Workers Pension Scheme
Again as in the table above €1.00 is collected from an employee by CWPS and passed to The Health Trust again not a requirement of the REA.

Money sent to The Benevolent Fund by the Construction Workers Pension Scheme
CWPS collect .19 cent weekly from the employer and .50 cent weekly from the employee. This levy is not required by the REA.

CWPS 2007 Accounts
As an employer member of CWPS I recently received a notice from them that their 2007 accounts were online, so off I went to view the document. I was trying to find out how much money CWPS sent to the un required elements of the REA but I could not find a mention of any of the 3 levies for CWHT, Benevolent Fund, of EPACE Ltd.

So I called and asked where in the 2007 report the figures were for the money CWPS collected and passed onto these three agencies. The reply was as this money does not represent any part of the pension it does not appear on the CWPS 2007 accounts. My point exactly these levies collected by CWPS and in the case of EPACE Ltd now represent a considerable amount of money should not be represented as pension funds to employers or employees.

Furthermore I was told by CWPS that they had no idea how much money they had passed onto EPACE Ltd, The Health Trust, or the Benevolent Fund. I don’t know about other contractors, but in my business if you asked me what money I had paid to a particular supplier, or what a particular customer had paid me, I would be able to tell you.

CWPS Trustee Board
So this got me looking a bit deeper into CWPS 2007 accounts, and the trustees of this pension fund. There are 11 trustees 5 of which are Trade Union Officials, and interestingly some of who also are Trustees of CWHT and the Benevolent Fund. They are two of the three agencies that CWPS send money to but have no idea how much.

Eric Fleming SIPTU
That’s the union who are currently balloting Aer Lingus for all out strike action, an action that will sure as hell bring the airline down and hand it straight into the hands of Mick (Michael O’Leary) of the highly profitable un unionised airline Ryanair. Personally I can’t wait. Mr. Fleming is also a trustee of CWHT and the Benevolent Fund.

Niall Irwin OPASTI Operative Plasters and Allied Trade Society of Ireland

Jim Moore UCATT union of Construction Allied Trades and Technicians
Also trustee of CWHT and the Benevolent Fund.

Patrick O’Shaughnessy BATU Building and Allied Trade Union
That’s the union headed up by Patrick whose offices were occupied with their own members who say they have no confidence in the present leadership and are demanding his resignation and that the union opens its books to an auditor. Mr O’Shaughnessy is also a trustee of CWHT and the Benevolent Fund.

Thomas White Technical Engineering Union
Also a trustee of CWHT and the Benevolent Fund and member of the Joint Industrial Council known as a JIC for both the Electrical Industry and the Construction Industry.

Forgive me but I fail to see why Trade Unionist’s have any part in running a Pension Scheme.

Money paid out to the Trustees of CWPS (Expenses).
According to the CWPS website they paid over the following amounts to the 11 Trustees of the CWPS pension scheme.
2007 €171,162.00
2006 €15,075.00

As you can see there was a Zimbabwean level of inflation in Trustees expenses from 2006 to 2007.

The 2007 expenses represent €15,560.18 for each fof the 11 Trustees. Say these boys meet once a month that works out to €1,296.68 per meeting. Say they meet for a full day 8 hours that works out as €162.08 per hour.

Nice work if you can get it.

Canal House Redevelopment
According to CWPS 2007 accounts they handed over €354,318.00 of pension funds for the redevelopment of Canal House, that’s also where the Construction Industry Federation CIF have their offices, they share with CWPS very cosy indeed.

The Sunday Business Post reported the following on 30/03/2008
“The Construction Industry Federation (CIF) and the Construction Workers Pension Scheme (CWPS) are planning a €45 million redevelopment and revamp of their headquarters site on Canal Road in Dublin 6”.

CWPS Monopoly
The Construction Workers Pension Scheme is only in business and without competition because of a Registered Employment Agreement which absolutely explains why it’s badly managed, and answerable to no one. It operates like some sort of Fiefdom for Trade Unions with members interests at the bottom rung of the ladder if on the ladder at all.

Presently the REA for the electrical industry is being challenged in the High Court, and I for one having discovered the above cant wait for its downfall.