BT pension deal halts strike call

BT HAS seen off the threat of strikes after reaching a deal with union chiefs on pensions and pay.

The telecoms company will close its final salary pension scheme at the end of May, a move bosses say is crucial to its finances.

It is replacing it with a ‘hybrid’ system which will combine elements of defined benefit and defined contribution schemes.

The deal followed talks with the Communication Workers Union, which had warned it could ballot for strikes over the changes.

Staff will get a 3pc pay rise this year and again in 2019.

About 30,000 are in the BT pension scheme – a defined benefit scheme which closed to new joiners in 2001. It has a deficit estimated to be nearly £14bn.