UK employees at Tata Steel’s Long Products Europe business have agreed to a temporary reduction in pay to facilitate the sale of the business to Greybull Capital.
Members of trade unions Community, GMB and Unite accepted the changes to pay and conditions following a consultative ballot.
The 12-month agreement includes a 3% pay cut and changes to the pension scheme.
The long products division, which includes Tata’s Scunthorpe steelworks, employs 4,400 staff in the UK and 400 in France.
Harish Patel, national officer at Unite, said: “Unite recognises that this will have been a difficult decision to take for many, but by agreeing to make these short-term sacrifices members have secured a future for steelmaking in Scunthorpe and the long product division’s other sites.”
Steve McCool, national officer for the steel industry at Community, added: “I want to thank everyone who participated in this important ballot. I fully appreciate this has been an extremely difficult decision, but be in no doubt this result represents another major step forward towards our objective of securing a sustainable future for long products.
“Our members have spoken and the trade unions will be guided by this result as we continue to work with Tata and Greybull to secure a long-term future for the business."
Dave Hulse, national officer at GMB, said: “This was an important ballot at the end of difficult negotiations but our members have clearly voted in favour of the proposals, in recognition of the challenges ahead.
“Now we want Tata, Greybull and the government to pull together to complete the deal. Government will need to commit to further action on dumping, procurement and other costs but with the right support everyone can turn their focus to making a success of the new business and look to the future of long products steel making.”
