Female workers in the healthcare sector will be unfairly affected by the government’s public sector pensions changes, according to a leaked letter by Health Secretary Andrew Lansley MP.

Lansley has criticised the government’s proposed public sector pensions policy as ‘inappropriate’ and ‘unrealistic’.

According to reports in The Daily Telegraph, the Conservative MP for South Cambridgeshire asked the government in a private letter to reconsider proposals that he believed would unfairly affect female workers.

He wrote that the proposals assume that public sector workers, many of whom are women, will have to work a 48-year career in order to qualify for a full pension.

He explained, ‘In the NHS, the average full time career for those taking a pensions is only 19 years.

‘It seems unrealistic to suggest that pensions scheme design should be based on the assumption that a predominantly female workforce. Would need to work full-time, 48-year careers in future.’

In the letter, Lansley warns that the potential for industrial action is a very ‘real risk’ among the very staff involved in delivery key public services.

The reforms to public sector pensions were unveiled last month by Liberal Democrat MP Danny Alexander after a report to the government by ex-Labour minister Lord Hutton.

(Readers can access the report by clicking here)