بريتيش ايرويز، يکی از بزرگترين شرکت های هواپيمائی جهان، تصميم گرفته است با افزايش سن بازنشستگی کارمندان خود، از هزينه پرداخت حقوق بازنشستگی بکاهد. با تصميمات جدید سن بازنشستگی خلبان ها از 55 به 60 سال و خدمه هواپيما به 65 سالگی افزايش مي یابد. تصميم اخير یکی از تازه ترين نشانه های مشکل تامين بودجه صندوق بازنشستگی بسياری از شرکت های بريتانيائی است. مارک گرگوری گزارش می دهد: .

Recent changes in accounting rules have forced companies in Britain to state much more accurately the true financial state of their pension funds. The reform has highlighted huge deficits - meaning the amount of money in pension schemes doesn't cover what will need to be paid out in future to retired workers.

British Airways is one of the firms most affected - its pension fund has a deficit of nearly two billion dollars. That's larger in relation to the value of the company's shares than any other firm in the top 100 shares quoted on the London stock market.

For months BA has been locked in tense negotiations with staff, and trade unions were threatening strike action. The arrival of a new chief executive with a tough reputation for cost-cutting further raised the stakes.

At the end of it all the company is proposing to raise the retirement age for pilots to sixty and other staff to sixty-five. The company will also inject over eight hundred million dollars of its own cash to improve the health of its pension fund.

Lots of other big British firms will be watching closely - several hundred of them have already closed their pension schemes to new members. One or two have closed their pension schemes altogether, meaning that existing staff will be worse off in retirement.

The pensions crisis facing British firms is one aspect of a much bigger issue: people in rich countries are living longer which means it costs much more to keep them in old age.

Mark Gregory, BBC News

accounting rules
مقررات حسابرسی ( شرکت ها)

pension funds
صندوق های بازنشستگی

reform
اصلاح، تغيير

highlighted huge deficits
کمبود قابل توجه پول را نشان داد، کسری قابل توجه بودجه را نشان داد

locked in tense negotiations
در مذاکرات فشرده و مشکل درگير شدند

were threatening strike action
تهديد به دست زدن به اعتصاب می کردند

with a tough reputation for cost-cutting
شهرت داشتن به اتخاذ تدابير انعطاف ناپذير برای کاهش هزینه ( شرکت)

raised the stakes
موقعيت را مهمتر کرد

inject
وارد کردن، ريختن

worse off in retirement
هنگام بازنشسته شدن وضعيت مالی شان بدتر خواهد بود، دراينجا: هنگام بازنشستگی پول کمتری خواهند گرفت

Source: BBC Persian Service