| Mr Hosie, SNP treasury spokesman, said he was keen to ensure the tyre manufacturer’s local employees would have a “real living pension” in retirement.
As the Tele revealed last week, around 800 employees at the Baldovie plant will be affected if the company goes ahead with a proposal to close its final salary pension and transfer members to a money purchase scheme.
Unions have already cried foul over the move, claiming that the “fait accompli” will throw the retirement plans of thousands across the country into chaos.
Mr Hosie said today, “The plan is to meet management this week, and also to contact the unions again now they have had a chance to digest this announcement.
“There have been a lot of cases recently where final salary schemes have shut, and also shortfalls in pension funds, not least due to the Chancellor’s changes in tax treatment in 1997.
“What I want to do is make sure that what is on offer will provide a real living pension for Michelin employees when they come to the end of their working lives, and that the existing members have their savings fully protected.”
Michelin has confirmed the proposed changes would affect around four in every five members of its near-1000 strong city workforce, encompassing both manufacturing and office personnel.
A local spokesman for the Transport and General Workers Union said today they were “still gathering information” about the impact of the plan, and declined to comment further.
The T&G has already said it wants meaningful talks and serious consideration of alternatives to a closure plan which will affect thousands of Michelin employees — and ATS service outlets — around the country.
The tyre maker is proposing to close the scheme at the start of 2009 and transfer employees to a defined contribution scheme, under which they would build up a pension fund through payments from their salary and from Michelin.
Michelin, whose UK operations are based in Stoke-on-Trent, said its pension liabilities has risen to £260m, from £57m in 2002. Under the new proposal, it would pay off this deficit over the next 10 years.
A consultation process over the future of the scheme will begin in June and run for three months. |
