A majority of 96 per cent of BMW staff have voted for industrial action over plans to close their defined benefit pension scheme.

The consultative ballot was held in response to BMW bosses' refusal to negotiate about keeping the scheme open, despite record profits of £5.7bn last year and awarding shareholders £1.8bn in dividends.

The vote, which involved around 4,000 Unite members across sites in Cowley, Farnborough, Goodwood, Hams Hall and Swindon, found an overwhelming anger for what the workers describe as a ‘pensions robbery’.

Unite has said that it will now make arrangements to hold a full statutory strike ballot which could lead to strike action unless BMW agrees to readdress its pension plans.

Unite national officer Tony Murphy said: “This massive vote in favour of action demonstrates the depth of anger among BMW workers over the carmaker’s ‘pensions robbery’.

“BMW’s UK workforce has worked hard to help deliver record profits in excess of £5bn for the carmaker. They feel betrayed by its rush to close their final salary pension scheme which will rob them of the future retirement they have worked hard for.

“Unite will now be making arrangements to move to a full statutory industrial action ballot which given the strength of feeling could result in industrial action in the coming months.

“We would urge BMW bosses to recognise the strength of feeling by negotiating meaningfully over keeping the pension scheme open and honouring their pensions promises.”

Following the announcement that a consultative ballot was to be launched, a BMW spokesperson said: "BMW Group is proposing to close its two UK defined benefit pension schemes to future accrual from 1 June 2017 and this affects around 5,000 staff across all of the company’s UK operations. If implemented, all staff would join the company’s market-leading defined contribution scheme. This pension scheme was launched in early 2014 for new starters and now has over 2,000 members.

"Many UK companies have significant pension fund shortfalls in their defined benefit schemes and the cost and risk associated with these schemes is making them increasingly unsustainable and unaffordable for both members and companies. BMW Group has always prided itself in providing excellent pensions for its staff and wants to act now to protect future pension provision for all its staff and to help protect the cost competitiveness of the UK as a manufacturing base. The company is now consulting with our employee representative bodies on this proposal."

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