MORE than a 100 workers from the former Visteon plant have staged a protest over pension fears.

The event at Days in Plasmarl comes after a series of packed public meetings were held to organise action on the issue.

Rob Williams, union convener for the Linamar plant, said 750 city workers face losing out on their pensions to the tune of around 10 per cent.

However, it is believed that some workers could lose as much as a quarter of their pension entitlement.

"It varies from person to person and it is no good telling pensioners they will be ok for the next five years," he said.

The workers chose to hold their protest at Days as they claim Ford's business dealings — as the plant's former owner — had put the value of their pensions in jeopardy.

"We were Ford until 2000 then when it went to Visteon, we were told that our pension terms and conditions would be protected," said Mr Williams.

He explained that the knock-on effect of Visteon going into administration earlier this year was the fact workers' pensions look set to go into a pension protection fund, which will reduce their value.

"Some people may say 90 per cent is enough, but how guaranteed is that amount?" asked Mr Williams.

Workers will also have future increases in their pension reduced because only the service after 1997 will be indexed linked.

Mr Williams said workers hoped to raise awareness of their plight and prompt Ford to plug the gap.

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"We believe Ford are responsible as they set Visteon up and they were never a viable company," he added.

Mr Williams said the union Unite is also planning legal action against Ford on the issue.

A spokesman for Ford said the company "met or exceeded" its obligations under the 2000 agreement when Visteon became fully independent.

He said this agreement covered the transfer of employees to Visteon UK and their pensions into the Visteon fund.

"The situation for former Visteon UK employees is unfortunate but the responsibility for administering and funding their terms and conditions was Visteon's," said the spokesman. He added that this included managing its pension fund, which was 100 per cent funded at the time of transfer.

"Since 2000 Visteon has operated as an independent company supplying parts to Ford," the spokesman said.

He added that during this period, Ford had taken a number of actions to support Visteon, which included enabling 560 Visteon employees to return to Ford and providing Visteon with ongoing and new Ford business.

"Despite this Ford assistance, sustained losses meant that Visteon Corporation took the decision to put Visteon UK into administration earlier this year," said the spokesman.

He added: "Ford is not in a position to provide further assistance to affected parties and is striving for its own continued viability, which has required difficult decisions including bringing production in line with reduced demand, releasing agency and temporary production workers and a 2009 voluntary separation programme for approximately 800 employees."