ST HELENS MP Dave Watts has taken the plight of the Ravenhead workers directly to Prime Minister Tony Blair.

During a 45-minute meeting, Mr Watts and a delegation of MPs discussed how hundreds of workers across the country, including those from Ravenhead, had been left with shortfalls in their pension schemes when companies went bust.

Mr Watts described the meeting as very positive and that the Prime Minister has promised to look at the ideas presented to him.

When the Nuttall Street based makers of dimpled pot pint glasses went bust in March 2001, workers lost their jobs and a deficit was found in the company pension scheme of about £5million. Since then the fund has been frozen and 370 workers are now facing up to undervalued payments.

Workers at other companies across the country have endured similar problems. Eight hundred workers at Allied Steel and Wire, Cardiff, saw 90 per cent their pensions' value wiped out when the company went bust in 2002.

A Pensions Bill has been published this year containing proposals to protect employers so they receive compensation if similar financial disasters happen in future. But the proposed legislation does is not work retrospectively, leaving ex-workers still with gaping holes in their pensions.

Investigation

The Prime Minister has been briefed previously on the plight of the workers by St Helens South's Labour, MP Shaun Woodward. Now Mr Watts and fellow MPs are pressing Mr Blair to introduce measures to aid workers like those from Ravenhead.

The St Helens North MP said: "I understand why any Government is reluctant to introduce retrospective legislation unless they are convinced they can prevent it from being used as a precedent for other cases.

"Given the recent cases of Equity Life and the shortfall of endowment mortgages it is not surprising that the Government is taking a cautious approach to this matter.

"We believe it is possible to put forward a package of assistance which would offer some help to this group without it opening the floodgates to other claims."

Fraud squad detectives and department of trade and industry officials are still probing the closure of Ravenhead glass. Both St Helens MPS are continuing to push for a thorough investigation into the background to the plant's closure, owned by Belgian company Durobor when it went bust.