The Hospital Employees' Union says the NDP's Public Sector Pension Plan Act represents a long overdue reform of B.C.'s public sector pensions providing workers with an equal say in the management of their pension funds. The proposed act consolidates and modernizes the statutes governing four public sector pensions plans while providing a mechanism through which workers can seek joint trusteeship over their pension funds. "With joint trusteeship in place it will be impossible for future governments to treat pension surpluses as another source of revenue," says HEU secretary-business manager Chris Allnutt. "Instead, health care workers now have a say over how their hard earned pension contributions are managed with a view to safeguarding and improving future pension benefits." Allnutt says the new act would prevent a government raid on pension surpluses such as that conducted by the Liberals in Ottawa on the federal public sector pension plan earlier this year. "I have one piece of advice for politicians who oppose this legislation," says Allnutt. "Keep your hands off workers' hard earned retirement income."