WATER supply workers are balloting for industrial action to defend their pension scheme after bosses claimed it was “unaffordable,” despite the Chinese parent company making a massive profit in Britain.

Unions GMB and Unite are holding a consultative ballot of staff at two companies, Northumbrian Water and Essex and Suffolk Water, which are owned by Hong Kong-based Cheung Kong Infrastructure Holdings (CKI).

The final-salary pension scheme at both British firms is under threat. The unions say they have been in talks since the early part of this year, but no progress has been made.

According to GMB and Unite, CKI made £630 million profit from water operations in this country in the last two years and bosses have consistently failed to show costings to back up their claim that the pension scheme is unaffordable.

Unite organiser Pat McCourt said: “What is happening is a scandal. While massive profits are being sent back to China, thousands of loyal workers in Northumbria Water face poverty in their later years.”

GMB regional organiser Maxine Bartholomew said: “Unions are now undertaking a consultative ballot which could result in a formal ballot for industrial action.

“CKI are just wallowing in greed.”

Northumbrian Water supplies 2.7 million people in Tyneside, Wearside and Teesside, the counties of Durham and Northumberland and parts of North Yorkshire.

Essex and Suffolk Water supplies 1.8 million people in south-east Norfolk, east Suffolk, Essex and the London boroughs of Barking and Dagenham, Havering and Redbridge.