Visteon claimants aim to extend legal challenge against Ford

clock

Former Visteon workers will attempt to extend a legal challenge against Ford Motor Company to cover 1,400 claimants who blame the company for the loss of their pensions.

The claimants, backed by Unite, allege that Ford provided misleading information to its employees when it spun off car parts manufacturer Visteon in 2000.

The Visteon UK pension scheme entered into Pension Protection Fund assessment with a deficit of £350m when Visteon UK went into administration in 2009 and Unite claims Ford is liable for the shortfall.

Claims against the car maker were originally organised into eight different cases with the lead case initially scheduled to be heard this month (PP Online, 21 July 2011).

But the union believes its argument will be strengthened by bringing the case as a group litigation claim.

Lead claimant Dennis Varney said: "The case is building. First my claim went through which was for negligent mis-statement, then an amendment went through which added in the financial data that showed Visteon was never going to survive anyway.

"Now we think this third development adds another pillar because it shows we could have taken collective action together if we had known the truth and maybe changed the course of events."

A judge will rule on whether a group litigation order can be set up after a hearing on 12 December. If the request is granted then the hearing, which has already been pushed back to May, would be delayed further.

Elsewhere, the Visteon Pensioners Action Group (VPAG), which organises weekly demonstrations against Ford, is planning rallies outside factories in Dagenham, Bridgend and Southampton on Monday after the announcement they were to be closed.

A play about the collapse of Visteon, written by a former employee, is also to receive its premier in Belfast at the end of the month. VPAG hope to bring the production to London in the new year.

More on Industry

Professional Pensions: Stories of the week

Professional Pensions: Stories of the week

Pensions minister speech, LawDeb 2024 results and M&G LTAF receives regulatory approval

Professional Pensions
clock 14 March 2025 • 1 min read
News Digest: Trustees warn over pension schemes of Thames Water workers if utility nationalised

News Digest: Trustees warn over pension schemes of Thames Water workers if utility nationalised

PP brings together all the latest news on pensions from across the national and financial media

Professional Pensions
clock 14 March 2025 • 1 min read
PPF publishes 2024 diversity pay gap report

PPF publishes 2024 diversity pay gap report

Lifeboat fund report shows mean ethnicity pay gap fell by 7.2 percentage points last year

Martin Richmond
clock 13 March 2025 • 3 min read
Trustpilot