Balfour Beatty accused of snatching pension rights

Transport union RMT launched a campaign to defend rail track workers' pensions after saying the firm was trying to "bulldoze through" changes that would affect over 2,500 workers.

RMT said it had been informed that the company board was proposing to stop future accrual in the Balfour Beatty defined-benefit pension fund and offer employees the company's inferior defined-contribution pension scheme.

The union said the company issued workers with HR1 notices, threatening dismissal of the entire workforce as an attempt to bully its proposals through. It said this amounted to negotiating with the workers by holding a gun to their heads.

RMT general secretary Bob Crow said the attack on pension rights was "yet another example of companies pulling the rug from under decent pensions in favour of inferior schemes that cost the company less and offer no guarantees on future rights."