THE Institute of Directors (IoD) has criticised plans to ease the pensions crisis by introducing compulsory employer contributions.

The IoD believes many of the recommendations in the Pensions Commission report were in tandem with its own proposals for pension reform, but one big difference remained.

Alyson Howard, chairman of the Kent branch of the IoD, said: "The second pensions report is the most comprehensive analysis of the our system ever undertaken.

"But we do not want the Government to accept the part on employers being forced to contribute. The burden of pensions on employers is already high enough. This would increase labour costs and act like a tax on employment."

However, the IoD welcomed the idea of a single unified state pension, the indexation of pensions by earnings and increasing the retirement age to 68.