Brits to retire to beat severance cuts

LONDON, July 16 (UPI) -- Thousands of British government workers likely will rush to retire before deep cuts in severance benefits take effect this year, observers say.

Britain plans to cap severance to laid-off government workers at one year's pay, Cabinet Office Minister Francis Maude said, while limiting payouts to 15 months' pay for those who leave voluntarily.

The limits are meant to generate drastic reductions in severance payments as the government plans to lay off thousands of its half-million civil servants, The Daily Telegraph reported.

Civil servants who leave in while their 50s had been receiving up to six years' pay as severance.

Under the 1972 Superannuation Act, The Daily Telegraph said, ministers must persuade all the civil service unions to agree to the changes.

Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union, accused the government of "acting outside the law."

Serwotka noted British courts threw out a previous Labor Party attempt to change the severance rules under former Prime Minister Tony Blair.

"The (current) government might be repeating the mistakes of the previous administration in acting outside the law, simply to make it easier and cheaper to cuts tens of thousands of jobs," Serwotka said. "We fundamentally reject the need for these cuts and, as well as challenging them in parliament and the courts, if necessary, we will pursue every avenue to oppose them in towns and cities across the (United Kingdom)."