AM welcomes Unite decision on court case against Ford
5 Gorffennaf 2010
Bethan speaking at the Visteon rally outside Unite's London headquarters in March this year
BETHAN Jenkins AM has welcomed the news that the union Unite is to take forward legal action against the Ford Motor Company, accusing it of mis-selling pensions to thousands of its former workers.
Bethan, the Plaid AM for South Wales West, has been campaigning with members of the Visteon Pension Action Group for over a year to have the car maker taken to court, claiming they were wrongly made to leave the company’s pension scheme once the car components part of the business was spun-out in 2000 as Visteon.
Some 3,500 former workers – including 700 from Swansea – were told they could lose as much as half their entitlements when Visteon UK went into administration last year and the company applied to enter the Pension Protection Fund.
Bethan said: “There are crucial issues for Ford to answer here. It has described the situation as “unfortunate”, but I would contend that it compelled its former workers who moved over to Visteon to join a scheme with the new company by claiming – incorrectly – that it could not legally allow them to stay in the Ford fund. In fact, Inland Revenue makes provision for such an eventuality. Ford should have known that.
“In addition, Ford never really gave Visteon UK a chance. It forced the new business to take on staff on ‘mirrored’ salaries and conditions, and then shortly afterwards demanded that Visteon reduce the price of parts it supplied to Ford. The net result of this is that Visteon UK never turned a profit in the nine years it was in existence.
“That, however, is not likely to feature in this court case. So I have written to both Ieuan Wyn Jones, the Deputy First Minister, and Steve Webb, the new Minister of State for Pensions, to urge them to join calls – echoing those made by Plaid MPs – for a full Parliamentary inquiry into the history of Visteon UK and what role Ford could have played in its collapse. The Visteon pensioners should be entitled to know.”
