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Tata Steel UK workers have voted in favour of proposals to turn around the struggling business, potentially saving 8,000 jobs but also leading to cuts to their pension benefits.
Workers from the Community, Unite, and GMB unions all backed the plan in separate ballots. Approximately three-quarters of votes supported the proposals, which involve saving the Port Talbot steelworks in south Wales.
[...] Tata Steel had proposed saving 8,000 jobs in its UK business and the Port Talbot steelworks by investing £1bn in modernising its operations over the next 10 years.
This investment depends on spinning off the pension fund into a separate entity and replacing the final salary pension scheme with a less generous contribution scheme.
The existing scheme – the British Steel pension scheme (BSPS) – could enter the Pension Protection Fund (PPF) as part of the arrangement, which would result in a 10% cut to members' benefits. For this to occur Tata Steel must convince the Pensions Regulator that its UK business is on the brink of insolvency and is likely to have to pump hundreds of millions of cash into the scheme.
[...] The jobs have been at risk since last March when Tata Steel announced it was putting its UK business up for sale amid losses of more than £1m a day. The decision sparked a political crisis as the government scrambled to secure the future of the Port Talbot plant. Port Talbot is one of only two sites in Britain that makes steel in blast furnaces.
The government welcomed the result of the vote. A spokesperson said: [...]
"It is testament to the commitment of its workforce that they are willing to work so constructively with the owners to secure the future of the plant. The government will play its role in supporting the steel industry to help deliver a sustainable future."
Source: The Guardian
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 16 2017, @10:33PM
So the day is saved. The company is now in stable financial grounds, so the executive team can give themselves their large annual bonuses. They did save the company after all.
And then come 5 years from now, when they face the next financial crunch, well, they can always re-negotiate with the workers. If the workers don't compromise more then, the company will go bankrupt due to the non-compromising worker union. Never mind that those laid-off workers won't have the pensions they gave up in 2017, too.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by srobert on Friday February 17 2017, @12:07AM
How do I mark "Insightful" 10,000 times.
(Score: 4, Funny) by Gaaark on Friday February 17 2017, @01:06AM
Get a botnet!
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 2) by davester666 on Friday February 17 2017, @04:27AM
Yes, probably something along the lines of "we need the money in the pension fund to pay out our bonuses this year. we promise to top it up in the future, when the money is to be disbursed to you as a pension".