STEELWORKERS at Tata Steel’s Port Talbot plant accused the company today of acting unfairly in how it was applying its redundancy scheme.

According to the Western Mail, some Tata staff claimed the company is deliberately applying the payments to some staff but not others.

Steelworkers told the newspaper they felt the company was dragging out the process and forcing them to leave without a redundancy payment if they wanted to take on a job with a different employer.

A month ago, Tata Steel closed blast furnace 4 which will trigger thousands of job losses at the South Wales steelworks and in the local supply chain.

The company denied the allegations saying it recognised “how difficult it is for people in and around our business,” and that along with additional support, it was looking to cross-match employees with other roles. 

“We continue to go through that process as quickly and as fairly as possible, and remain confident of retaining over 5,000 people in our UK-based business,” a spokesman said.

He said the company had agreed with the timeline of redundancies with the three steel trade unions, Community, GMB and Unite.

The unions and the Welsh government were invited to comment.