WORKERS at Northumbrian Water started industrial action yesterday after bosses announced plans to axe their pension scheme.

Staff have a “final-salary” pension scheme, under which their retirement income is based on their wages in the last two years of their working lives.

Management is abolishing the scheme and replacing it with pensions based on average salaries over a working lifetime, meaning that retired workers could lose tens of thousands of pounds.

Northumbrian Water claims the final-salary scheme is unaffordable, despite the company making £400 million profit over the last two years.

Unite regional officer Pat McCourt said that when Northumbrian Water’s Hong Kong-based owners took over the company, they had pledged that existing commitments would be honoured.

“Sadly, this promise has been broken, as the company now wants to introduce a career-average scheme.”