Pensions minister Steve Webb is to meet representatives of Ford Motor Company to discuss the plight of ex-workers who transferred their pensions to Visteon.
Speaking during a backbench business debate yesterday, Webb said the meeting would take place early in the New Year in a spirit of "constructive dialogue".
The announcement followed a session in which MPs unanimously backed a motion urging Ford to "recognise a duty of care to its former employees and should make good the pension losses suffered by those worst affected without the need for legal action".
Former workers believe they were misadvised when they transferred their accrued rights at the time Visteon was spun off from Ford.
Many lost a portion of their benefits when Visteon, which supplied parts exclusively to Ford, later collapsed with a severely underfunded scheme which entered the Pension Protection Fund (PPF).
Many MPs were critical of the company yesterday, claiming Visteon had been set up to fail and that Ford would not have acted this way with workers in the US.
Webb said he would give feedback on his meeting with the company to the all-party parliamentary group set up to campaign on behalf of former Visteon employees.
He said: "The spirit of that meeting, Ford and I have agreed, will be one of constructive dialogue, but I thought the best way I could reflect the spirit of the debate today would be to relay in person to senior executives of Ford UK the tenor of our debate and the views of this house which I think uniquely have been spoken with one voice."
Webb pledged to fully support any select committee that wanted to take the issue up, offering to put the expertise of The Pensions Regulator (TPR), PPF and his own officials at its disposal.
Speaking at the debate, chairman of the all-party group on Visteon Stephen Metcalfe said: "This fight will not go away. We see an injustice that has been done to our constituents and we will carry on fighting until justice has been done."
The motion supported by MPs was:
That this House notes that, when Visteon UK Ltd was spun off from the Ford Motor Company, employees transferred from Ford's pension scheme into the Visteon UK pension fund on the clear understanding that their pension rights would be unaffected; further notes that, when Visteon UK subsequently went into administration, now over four years ago, former Ford employees suffered a substantial reduction in their pension rights; regrets that the resolution of any court action is still some way off; believes that Ford should recognise a duty of care to its former employees and should make good the pension losses suffered by those worst affected without the need for legal action; and calls on the government to use the power and influence at its disposal to help ensure that Ford recognises its obligations and accepts voluntarily its duty of care to former Visteon UK pensioners.
