Bentley Motors workers at the company’s headquarters in Crewe are supporting industrial action due to plans to close the luxury carmaker’s defined benefit (DB) pension scheme.
According to trade union Unite, 98 per cent of the balloted employees - including car production workers, senior staff and managers – backed strike action, in a consultative ballot with a 92 per cent turnout.
Unite said it would now make arrangements to hold a full statutory industrial action ballot, which could result in strike action unless Bentley reconsiders its plans.
Bentley launched a consultation in February about closing its DB scheme, as the funding of the plan has increased by 50 per cent in the past five years.
The proposal will affect the 1,200 members of the Rolls Royce and Bentley Pension Fund – which already staged a protest in Crewe against these changes in February.
The scheme, which closed to new members in 2003, has a deficit of over £500m, a spokesperson at Bentley told FTAdviser.
He said: "We are fully committed to funding this deficit, which poses a significant financial challenge to our business.
"Whilst no decisions have yet been taken, we have to manage risk and ensure the sustainable future of the company and our colleagues.
"As part of the consultation, we will continue to look at affordable and balanced alternatives, that provide our colleagues with secure and sustainable pensions.
"We are of course disappointed by the results of Unite’s consultative ballot, which is not a ballot for industrial action at this stage. We will continue to work together with the unions to achieve the best possible outcome for the company and all of our colleagues."
Phil Morgan, Unite regional officer, argued that the ballot result “demonstrates the anger and strength of feeling among workers over Bentley’s pension proposals, which could result in workers losing thousands of pounds in retirement income”.
He said: “Unite will now be making arrangements to move to a full statutory industrial action ballot which given the strength of feeling could result in industrial action in the coming months.
“The union has presented counter proposals to the company as an alternative to the proposed closure of the pension scheme.
“We would urge bosses at Bentley and its parent company Volkswagen to listen to the workforce and further engage in meaningful talks with Unite aimed at reaching a mutually acceptable position.”
The carmaker follows the examples of other companies, which are closing their DB schemes due to growing costs.
This is the case of Royal Mail, which will close its final salary plan to future accrual on 31 March 2018, as the company reached an agreement with its trade union and workers to create a new collective defined contribution (CDC) scheme for all employers.
The Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), the biggest private DB plan in the country, has been facing industrial action after plans to transform the fund in a full DC plan.
maria.espadinha@ft.com
