BOSSES at UK companies are enjoying luxury pensions worth up to 50 times more than most staff pensions, according to the latest TUC PensionsWatch report.

The TUC says the news comes despite bosses being called on by the CBI to set an example.

It also says many top bosses are enjoying a no-risk pension related to their salary despite having closed such schemes to their staff, who must now bear the risk of investment movements.

The TUC quotes CBI chief Digby Jones, saying: "We know business must be mindful of the need to set a good example when it comes to, for example, salaries and pensions."

The PensionsWatch report states that directors of the UK's top companies share pensions with guaranteed pay-outs (called defined benefit or DB schemes) worth three quarters of a billion pounds.

On average each director's pension is worth £2.15 million. The average value for directors with the largest pension in each company is £4.5 million.

The average director's DB pension would pay out £169,000 a year if it was claimed now, over 26-times the national average.

For the directors with the biggest pension at each company the average is £303,000 a year, nearly 50-times the average for all employees.

Over 80 per cent of the directors in the study have defined benefit pensions but only 40 per cent of companies still have an open DB scheme for new employees.

Where directors are in money purchase schemes, where their pension will depend on the ups and downs of investments (called defined contribution or DC schemes) the average employer contribution is £80,000, around 20 per cent of salary, compared to the average employer contribution to staff pensions of just under 6.5 per cent of salary.