Harvard's Pension Plan

THE UNIVERSITY'S recent approval of a minimum pension plan is a fair--but overdue--settlement of an issue that has too long clouded labor relations at Harvard.

Before the minimum pension measure, the University paid some full-time employees who had labored for Harvard for 25 years as little as $96 in pension payments a month, in addition to their social security payments. The pension and general benefits review issue prompted the protracted labor negotiations between the University and its dining hall workers. The new plan will provide dining hall employees, custodians and property maintenance workers with 95 to 100 per cent of their pre-retirement take home pay.

We hope this settlement will mark a turning point in Harvard's pension policy. Now the University should move to revamp its pension plan which discriminates against hourly employees.