Union Slams Volkswagen Bosses Over £1.4m Attack On Bentley Pension Scheme

Volkswagen bosses are opportunistically using changes to UK pension funds to hand down a total of £1.4m of costs to Bentley workers, said Unite the union.

The German auto giant, still beleaguered by last year's emissions scandal, is taking advantage of changes to the contracting-out of staff pensions to pass down the £800,000 cost of rising employer's national insurance contributions to 1,300 members of the defined benefit pension scheme. This is in addition to the 1.4 per cent personal national insurance rise for each member, equating to a further £600,000.

The proposals follow government changes to state pensions, which will see the employer’s National Insurance (NI) contributions increase by around two per cent per year. In response Volkswagen plans to hand this cost down to employees of its Bentley subsidiary, by forcing staff to pay an extra two per cent of their salary into their defined benefit pension scheme.

While the new legislation comes in to effect this month, Bentley workers will be forced to pay the company's additional two per cent change from 01 May 2016. Unite is calling for the company to hold a genuine consultation with staff and work with the union to look at other ways for these charges to be off-set.

Tony Murphy, Unite National Officer for the automotive sector, said: Bentley Motors has remained a success story despite its parent company’s problems. There is no doubt that Bentley can afford to pay its own NI costs without expecting hardworking staff to foot the bill.

"What we're seeing is a cynical attempt by Volkswagen to take advantage of these pension changes to help off-set the costs of the disastrous emissions scandal. Bentley workers didn't cause Volkswagen’s crisis, so it’s absurd to expect them to pay for it now."