Tata Steel workers suspend industrial action until Saturday

Trade union to consult senior union delegates of Tata Steel's UK plants on Friday

Industrial action by workers at Tata Steel UK has been suspended until Saturday so that a new offer on pensions can be considered.

“From the offer made by Tata Steel, the company is ready to keep the scheme open, which was not the earlier proposal,” Paul Reuter, national officer for steel at Unite, the largest trade union in Britain, told Business Standard. “Also, the management has offered some changes to the scheme pertaining to employees nearing retirement age. We are now going to consult various senior union delegates of Tata Steel UK plants on Friday to discuss further plans,” he added.

Earlier, Tata Steel wanted to replace the existing pension scheme with a “money purchase” one, in which employees, the government and the employer make definite contributions. It also proposed to raise the retirement age from 60 to 65. Extension of the retirement age was one of the major points of dispute between the Tata Steel management and workers.

“According to the new offer, older workers who are going to be 60 years of age in 2020 can retire with a regular pension and will get an additional six months pension in lump-sum. The 65-year retirement will be implemented only in a phased manner,” Reuter said.

The company had said the pension scheme was short of £2 billion funds and needed to be closed, given the accumulated losses at Tata Steel Europe. Taking a tough stance on the proposal, members of four unions at the UK plant banned overtime and launched work-to-rule early on Tuesday morning. A 24-hour strike is due next Monday.

“If the union delegates are comfortable with the offer made by the Tata Steel management, we will have to carry out a ballot again to see if the majority is in favour as well,” said Reuter.For the last few weeks Community, UCATT, GMB and Unite, four unions representing 17,000 workers at Tata Steel Europe,  had taken aggressive steps to stop the company from closing the pension scheme.