WORKERS at engines firm Rolls-Royce are to be balloted on a "vastly improved" offer aimed at ending a row over pensions.
Rolls, which revealed a £1bn pension fund deficit earlier this year, has offered to increase its annual contributions by £35m.
The company, which employs 400 staff at Pallion, Sunderland, and has sites in Derby, Bristol and Glasgow, said a union negotiating committee was now recommending that members accept the new terms.
The Amicus union previously threatened to hold a strike ballot unless the terms offered by Rolls-Royce were changed.
It welcomed yesterday's proposals.
The terms add another £5m to the company's annual contribution, which will now total £95m - an increase of 58 per cent.
As a result, the new proposals will reduce the value of pensions at age 65 by an average of less than eight per cent, the company said.
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