BackWorkers at 4th Tata Steel UK union vote to strike
Members of trade union Unite voted 70% in favour of a strike over Tata Steel's proposal to change their pension scheme
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Mumbai: Four unions in Tata Steel Ltd’s UK business have voted in favour of a strike against the changes proposed to the company’s pension scheme. The unions will meet next week to decide their next course of action.
Trade union Unite on Friday said 70% of its members backed strike action, on a turnout of 66%. Unite was the last of the four unions to declare its ballot results.
The company plans to soften its proposed pension scheme, which seeks to extend the retirement age for availing of full pension benefits.
“We have, over the last few months, listened carefully to our employees during a consultation process. In response to this feedback, we will soon be announcing new measures, which will lessen the impact of the proposed pension changes, particularly on our longest-serving employees nearing retirement age," said a Tata Steel spokesman.
The other three unions—Community, GMB and Union of Construction, Allied Trades and Technicians (UCATT)—have also voted in favour of a strike.
On 29 May, UCATT said 95.1% of its members voted for strike action, on a turnout of 80%.
The same day, GMB said, “…members have voted in favour of industrial action in an official ballot over Tata Steel’s proposal to close the British Steel Pension Scheme (BSPS)".
“In total, 88% of those voting voted for strike action. The average turnout was over 76% and as high as 84% at Tata Steel’s works in Port Talbot, where 96% of members voted for strike action," said Community, in its press statement.
In a statement, Tata Steel called the ballot results disappointing.
Unite, in its press release, also said it would be meeting with other steel unions next week to discuss the next steps, including industrial action.
At present, workers can retire at the age of 60 without an actuarial reduction.
The company’s view, Unite said, is that they should now work until the age of 65 for full pension.
If they retire at 60, then they will lose 5% for each year of early retirement—25% in total, Unite said in its release.
Defending its proposed pension scheme changes, Tata Steel said the deficit in meeting the benefits under the current scheme is in excess of £2 billion as on 31 March 2014.
Tata Steel has three steelmaking facilities in the UK (Port Talbot, Rotherham and Scunthorpe) with a combined crude steel production capacity of 11 million tonnes per annum (mtpa).
In Europe, it has a crude steel production capacity of over 18 mtpa—which is currently more than two-thirds of the group’s total capacity.
Tata Steel acquired these assets as part of its $12.1 billion worth takeover of the Dutch group Corus in 2007.
On Friday, Tata Steel ended at trading at ₹ 311.05 on BSE Ltd, 0.91% above its previous close, while the benchmark Sensex closed at 26,768.49, down 0.17% from the previous day’s close.
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