Pension promise from new Ntl: owner

BECTU has been assured that Ntl: staff will still belong to a final-salary pension scheme after the company is sold.

Union officials are due to meet Ntl: management on December 9 to discuss the future of staff pensions, following the sudden announcement that the transmitter and communications company had been bought by Macquarrie Bank of Australia.

Prior to the announcement, staff had threatened strike action unless the provision of a final-salary pension scheme was made a condition of sale for any prospective purchasers.

The eventual buyer, Macquarrie Communications Infrastructure Group, has promised that staff can continue in a final-salary pension scheme once the sale goes ahead, after regulatory approval, in early 2005. However, precise benefits of the new scheme are unclear, and BECTU hopes to learn more at the December 9 meeting.

Macquarrie has offered £1.27 billion for Ntl:, and the union will be arguing that some of the proceeds should be used to pay off the current pension fund deficit of £70 million before the sale goes ahead.