Visteon battle set to go to court

Jenna Towler discusses the challenges ahead for the Visteon victims

Jenna Towler
clock

Visteon workers are set to get their day in court as union representatives from Unite confirmed it will start legal action against car giant Ford this week.

Unite is taking Ford to court over what it sees as a betrayal by Ford - the company from which Visteon was born - of both its moral and financial obligations.

Visteon was set up to take over Ford's component plants in the UK and its parent remained its main customer. But Visteon was a completely separate business entity, with a completely separate pension scheme.

When the company collapsed in 2000 its pension fund had a shortfall of £350m and many of its long standing workers, who had worked for Ford before the spin off - and transferred their pots to the newly established scheme - lost out substantially.

The Visteon Pension Action Group has protested at key political and industry events over the past year and hopes the legal action brought by its union will bring the situation to a fruitful resolution for the 3,000 affected members.

Unite's position is clear - Ford has "blood on its hands" and has broken "copper bottomed promises" made to its former workers.

However, while Ford admits the situation is "regrettable" it believes it fully discharged its obligations to the Visteon victims.

The courts seem to be the only place to get a binding and fair resolution to the situation.

Though Unite is also realistic about the fact it has a long, hard battle to fight against a monolithic multi-national.  JT

More on Industry

Professional Pensions: Stories of the week

Professional Pensions: Stories of the week

Dashboard staging dates, WPC report on DB schemes and general code comes into force

Professional Pensions
clock 28 March 2024 • 1 min read
Best and worst performing master trusts see 10% difference in returns

Best and worst performing master trusts see 10% difference in returns

Providers with high growth phase equity allocations got best returns in 2023, LCP finds

Jasmine Urquhart
clock 28 March 2024 • 2 min read
News Digest: Meet the woman on a mission to get pension money into UK start-ups

News Digest: Meet the woman on a mission to get pension money into UK start-ups

PP brings together all the latest news on pensions from across the national and financial media

Professional Pensions
clock 28 March 2024 • 1 min read
Trustpilot