A WARNING has been raised there will be a two-tier workforce at the reprieved Grangemouth petrochemical plant after it emerged staff who refused to sign up to new terms will get worse pensions than those who did.

A new condition of the survival plan is the closure of the company's final salary pension scheme, with owners Ineos contributing 11% and staff 6% to a new one.

But the 650 or so employees who refused to sign up to the new agreement will be sacked and rehired as new employees. While they too will pay in 6% of their salaries to a new scheme, Ineos will only contribute 9%.

Local MP Michael Connarty said it was a "disaster for working relations in the plant".

An Ineos spokesman said: "The offer was really clear: if they wanted the enhanced scheme all they had to do was say yes."

Meanwhile, it has emerged that First Minister Alex Salmond held a secret meeting with another energy company to see if it would take over Grangemouth. He met Andrew Owens, the chief executive of London-based Greenergy, on Thursday in a hotel in Uphall.

A spokesman for Mr Salmond said: "The Scottish Government was very open about the fact that we were talking to a number of interested parties about Grangemouth."