THE Congress of SA Trade Unions (Cosatu) will on Wednesday address Parliament’s finance portfolio committee, asking them to amend the Pension Funds Second Amendment Bill so that surplus assets are allocated to pensioners who were deprived of their reasonable benefits in the past. Cosatu representative Patrick Craven said on Tuesday the issue was particularly sensitive, and employers were trying to get their hands on assets worth over R80-billion. Craven said the so-called surpluses were not actually surpluses, but assets which defined benefit funds set aside to meet members’ reasonable benefit expectations. Cosatu says the bill in its present form does not fully recognise employees’ rights. Cosatu says the bill should declare that a pension fund belongs to its members, no third party should have a stake in the fund, and every pensioner is entitled to a proportional share of the fund. – SAPA