Part-timers win pensions pay-out

HSBC, one of Britain's biggest banks agreed on 26 March 2002 to give its part-time staff backdated pension benefits equivalent to those of full-time colleagues for any employment at the bank since April 1976. The deal is the first big settlement since a House of Lords ruling in 2001 that backdated part-timers' pension rights in line with an earlier European Court of Justice decision. On the 27 March 2002 Barclays announced a similar scheme.