Unions agree to fully endorse Tata Steel proposals

All unions and officials have agreed to fully endorse a proposal by Tata Steel which which includes a £1bn investment over 10 years.

The deal includes a two-blast furnace operation at Port Talbot and plans for no compulsory redundancies for the next five years.

But, the current pension scheme will be terminated as part of the deal in return.

The proposal will be voted on by all union members and active members of the pension scheme from Monday.

The ballot will take two weeks.

'Vote on a knife edge' - by ITV Wales' Business Correspondent Carole Green

Those close to the talks described the vote as on a 'knife edge'.

The company will be hoping the sweeteners for older workers in return for the endorsement from the unions will help get the yes vote over the line.

However, Tata workers will make up their own minds. They do have a history of going against their union and company.

The Brexit vote which saw many steel workers voting to leave the EU, despite being urged by both unions and the company to remain, was evidence of that.

Tata have described today's move as a 'reshaping' of their original proposal put forward in December.

Pension scheme members in sight of retirement - aged 50 or above - will be provided with an ex-gratia payment from the company to compensate this group of older employees.

Those retiring aged 60 would receive a payment of £10,000.

Workers now face the difficult choice of whether to pay now with reduced pension benefits in order to secure investment at Tata in the longer term.