21 NOVEMBER 1987, Page 29

Holiday rights

MY heart is on the picket-line at Cowley, where the car-makers of Rover (ex-BL, ex-Leyland, ex-BMC, ex-Morris) have for once staged a thoroughly sensible strike. It is about holidays — the three-year holiday from contributing to their pension fund which Rover has awarded to itself. Many companies have given themselves such holidays, saying that their fund had quite enough money to meet its obligations. None, to my knowledge, has given its employees a holiday. They have to go on paying. The Cowley strikers should be ready to transfer, as will be their right next year, into personal pension schemes. Then they can have their employers' contribu- tion written into their contracts of employ- ment.