Royal Mail in new pensions row

Royal Mail has been accused of flouting pensions equality standards, as the embattled postal service prepares to face investors next week without a permanent chief executive.

Institutional Shareholder Services, the shareholder advice group, has raised concerns about top bosses getting higher pension contributions than new postal workers on the ground.

Under current policies, new executive directors will get pension contributions of 13.6pc of salary, while new employees will go into a defined benefit scheme which has contributions of 10pc.

ISS says: “This is not in line with the recommendations of the UK Code, which suggests that the pension contribution rates for executive directors, or payments in lieu, should be aligned with those available to the workforce.”