Johnson: New pensions secretary

But he stopped short of agreeing to union demands for compulsory contributions to company schemes.

Mr Johnson said he wanted to ensure there was more employee involvement in the running of company schemes.

He said new laws would be introduced to ensure half of a scheme's trustees were nominated by its members

Unison boss Dave Prentis earlier argued that many workers were facing poverty when they retire.

Poorest often the eldest

Mr Johnson, who replaced Andrew Smith in a recent reshuffle, said he wanted to increase people's understanding of "complex pensions issues" so they can make informed choices for retirement.

He said pensioner poverty was the biggest issue facing New Labour when it won power in 1997 and that the poorest were often the eldest.

"We were right to make these two million pensioners our priority," said Mr Johnson, a former union leader himself.

He highlighted plans for a pension protection fund which he said meant for the first time those in defined benefit pension schemes based in the UK would be protected if their company goes bust leaving schemes underfunded.

A Financial Assistance Scheme would bring "significant help" to those who had lost out already.

Strike warning

On the eve of the TUC's annual conference in Brighton general secretary Brendan Barber warned: "Unions will fight to defend pension benefits. We will negotiate, we will campaign and if we have to we will strike."

He said that only one in three workers now had a pension linked to their pay and half of workers would be reliant on state pensions when they retired, he said.

"They will be relying on the future generosity of governments, possibly unwise when both major parties want to reduce the proportion of pensions paid and neither will give a permanent guarantee to link the state pension to earnings."

Unions have also called for pensions representatives introduced in workplaces across Britain.

Gerry Doherty, boss of the Transport Salaried Staffs Association, argued few employers could be trusted to give workers an honest assessment of their company pension.

Trustworthy?

"If people are to take control of their pension planning they need a trustworthy source of information - their own pensions rep," he said.

Amicus meanwhile is planning to ask for TUC backing in a battle to save the pensions of thousands of workers at an engineering firm.

Around 40,000 workers from Turner and Newall face big losses after their final salary scheme was frozen by the High Court.