Union leaders representing thousands of nuclear workers are to discuss calling a strike ballot in a row over pensions.
The unions said 16,000 workers at 19 sites face cuts under plans by the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority to make savings of £660 million.
The workers are based at Sellafield (Cumbria), Magnox (Anglesey), Ayrshire, Dorset, Dumfriesshire, Essex, Gloucestershire, Gwynedd, Kent, Oxfordshire, Somerset, Suffolk, Direct Rail Services (Cumbria), Dounreay Site Restoration Ltd (Caithness), Low Level Waste Repository (Cumbria) and International Nuclear Services (Cumbria, Warrington).
The unions said the Government's expectation is that the final salary pension schemes in place across the NDA estate will be reformed by April 2018.
Justin Bowden, GMB national officer, said: "There is no justification for this attack on the pensions of these nuclear workers and their communities.
"These pension funds are in a sound state and underwent considerable reform 10 years ago.
"What the Government are saying is that the privatised site license companies who run these nuclear facilities are in fact public sector organisations and therefore Sellafield, Dounreay and the Magnox sites should go through the same reforms as the rest of the public sector itself."
Kevin Coyne, Unite national officer, said: "We are urging all our members working for the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority (NDA) to resist this proposed Treasury-led 'raid' on their pensions - if it is allowed to go-ahead thousands of workers will see their retirement incomes slashed by thousands of pounds.
"It is blatantly clear that the NDA is the stalking horse for the Government is which hell-bent in saving £660 million over the period of decommissioning."
Dai Hudd, Prospect's deputy general secretary, said: "Prospect members are some of the most highly skilled workers in the UK, indeed some number amongst the highest skilled engineers and scientists working in this field in the world.
"There can be no justification for these cuts to the future pensions of these workers."
The unions will meet next Monday.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel