London: Indian steel giant's European arm -- Tata Steel UK -- today called for "unconditional talks", even as British unions prepared to start balloting the company's nearly 17,000 workers to decide on whether to take strike action, a day before the country's May 7 general election.
The unions - Community, GMB, UCATT and Unite - are locked in a dispute with Tata Steel about proposed changes to their final salary pension scheme and will begin balloting the steel workers from May 6.
If the workers vote in favour of a strike, it will mark the biggest industrial action in Britain's steel sector in 35 years.
While the workers have claimed a lack of "meaningful consultation", the Tata Group firm insists it is keen to find a resolution.
"We've made numerous attempts to meet with company and they've refused to lift the threats that would allow for meaningful consultation to take place. I believe they had a hidden agenda from day one to close the pension scheme," said Roy Rickhuss, general secretary of the Community.
The industrial action ballot is sought by unions to decide between a strike, lock-out and action short of a strike based on the majority view of the employees.
Ballot papers will be posted to union members from May 6 and the ballot process is expected to conclude on May 29.
"Tata Steel remains open to unconditional talks with the unions to find resolutions to the very substantial challenges facing the pension scheme," a Tata Steel spokesperson said.
"We started discussions with our UK unions last year about the need to modify our final salary pension scheme because of the scheme's increasing deficit. The unsustainable growth in the deficit is mainly due to people living longer and low returns in the financial markets," he said.
"We proposed modifications to the final salary pension scheme which would have enabled it to remain open to future accrual. However, agreement could not be reached with the unions, which prompted the start of a consultation process on proposals to switch the majority of UK employees to different, though still very competitive, pension arrangements," the spokesperson added.
The company is now fully consulting with employees about these proposed changes, the spokesperson said.
"This consultation provides opportunities for employees to comment and express opinions that they wish the company to consider. We will consider employees' views before making a final decision," the spokesperson said.
The dispute centres around Tata Steel's proposal to replace the existing British Steel Pension Scheme (BSPS) with a "money purchase" pension scheme in which employees, the government and the employer will make definite contributions.
The unions have rejected it on the ground that it would increase the financial burden on the employees.
