Tata Steel workers vote to accept proposal to save pension scheme

Unions will now seek further meeting to finalise arrangements

The pensions dispute at Tata Steel, which bought the company to the brink of the biggest industrial dispute in 35 years, has ended as union members voted to accept changes to the British Steel Pension Scheme which will keep the scheme open.

Members of Community, the GMB and Ucatt had voted in favour of strikes in protest at the closure of the final salary pension scheme. 

Harish Patel, national Officer for Unite, said: "There is a clear mandate from all union members for the Steel Committee to seek further meetings with the company to finalise the arrangements to keep the British Steel Pension Scheme open. This result also provides the opportunity to negotiate improvements to the scheme in the future should the scheme recover."

Roy Rickhuss, general secretary of Community and chair of the National Trade Union Steel co-ordinating committee said: "The challenges will not end here. There is more to do both to resolve the concerns of our members at Tata Steel and to meet the wider challenges faced by the UK steel industry.

"It was apparent during this dispute that the company was not listening to the concerns of its workforce, which led to a serious breakdown in trust and confidence. All unions have already begun a dialogue with the company to address these issues."

As of December 2014, the British Steel Pension Scheme had 143,000 members, with 17,004 making up employee members and 91,264 making up pensioner members. As of November 2014, the assets of the scheme were valued at about £13.6 billion and continue to increase.