STEELWORKERS began balloting yesterday on strike action after Indian transnational Tata Steel said it would close their pension scheme.

The Unite, Community, GMB and Ucatt unions are balloting.

General union Unite said that workers could currently retire at the age of 60 without loss of pension.

But Tata wants to axe pensions paid to retirees at 60 by 25 per cent — as well as close the scheme to new members.

“Following five months of intensive negotiations where the trade unions offered savings to the company of £850 million, Tata Steel UK has decided that it is ideologically wrong for employees, who have worked hard in an extremely strenuous and physically demanding environment, to be able to retire with the pensions that they were originally promised,” said Unite national officer Paul Reuter.

Tata took over what was left of Britain’s steel industry after its decimation by the Thatcher government in the 1980s.