press trust of india, New Delhi, June 9: Tata Steel Tuesday said it has not received any formal notice from trade unions of its UK subsidiary about the proposed strike on June 22.
Trade unions representing workers of Tata Steel in the UK Monday announced “strike action” on June 22 over proposed changes to the company’s pension scheme – the biggest industrial action in the UK in nearly three decades.
“TSUK (Tata Steel UK Limited) has not received any formal notice from the Unions with respect to the said strike,” the steel giant said in a filing to the BSE.
It said “TSUK – indirect subsidiary of Tata Steel Limited has learnt of the strike from the press statement issued by the Unions” and “TSUK will issue appropriate statements upon receiving formal notice”. Accordingly, the Company (Tata Steel Limited) will make necessary disclosures to the exchanges and investors at the appropriate time.”
Tata Steel has termed the unions’ decision as “very disappointing” and promised to lessen the impact of the changes, which include employees retiring at 65 instead of 60.
The “strike action” will be preceded by the employees refraining from over-time and observing work-to-rule next week in the escalating dispute.
“Steel unions have agreed Monday June 22 as the date for strike action at Tata Steel in their ongoing pensions dispute,” Community union, which has the largest number of members who are employed at Tata Steel has said.
However, the UK’s largest union Unite had said it is still open to talks if Tatas are ready for meaningful
discussions.
Tata Steel employs over 17,000 workers across four sites in Wales in Port Talbot, Newport, Flintshire and Carmarthenshire, as well as sites around England including Corby, Hartlepool, Rotherham, Scunthorpe, Teesside and York.
A Tata Steel spokesman had said, “Everyone agrees that changes need to be made to resolve the challenges facing our pension scheme, which has a projected shortfall of over 2 billion pounds. We will soon be announcing new measures which will lessen the impact of the proposed pension changes, particularly on our longest-serving employees nearing retirement age.”
Four steel unions – Community, Unite, GMB and Ucatt – began voting on the nature of industrial action against changes to their British Steel Pension Scheme in early May.
