STEEL workers are to be balloted for industrial action in a dispute with steel giant Tata over pensions.
Community accused the company of being "hell bent" on closing its final salary scheme, which it described as an attack on workers' terms and conditions.

Tata, which runs many former British Steel sites, including Teesside beam mill at Lackenby, near Redcar, employs about 750 workers across the North-East. 

Union national executive member Paul McBean said: "We have tried to bring Tata back to the negotiating table, but to no avail. Even after coming up with schemes to bridge all of the deficit, Tata did not want to know and are hell bent on closing the scheme.

"After all that we have done for the company, working with them to save money to keep the company going forward, the efforts and sacrifices of our members have been thrown in their faces by Tata. This response is totally unacceptable to Community and its members and we know we need to stand up to Tata."

The union said it was carrying out preparatory work to make sure it complied with the law on ballots before a timescale is agreed.

A Tata Steel spokesman said: "The company and the trade unions have had a number of meetings to discuss the preliminary actuarial valuation of the British Steel Pension Scheme as at 31 March 2014. Those discussions have been held in a constructive and transparent atmosphere.
"The unions and company have discussed the performance of the UK business and considered the challenges facing the pension scheme.

"We have been unable come to an agreement that would have enabled defined benefit provision to continue and will be consulting employees on a proposal to close the defined benefit scheme to future accrual. It is proposed that future pension provision will be on a defined contribution basis.

"We remain committed to providing employees with competitive future pension provision."