UNION bosses today called for workers at Barnoldswick's Rolls-Royce plant not to panic ,despite a £1.1billion black hole in the company's pension scheme.

Amicus said it was in discussing the shortfall with bosses at the Skipton Road site.

Rolls-Royce is the latest major employer to be effected by the falling share prices.

Union representative John Boardman said members should not worry about the situation.

He said companies across the country were suffering from a fall in share prices, which affected the performance of pension schemes.

He said he was sure the situation would improve and a meeting was set to take place between employers and union representatives in April.

Mr Boardman said: "Because of this situation our response is likely to be that we would be more interested in coming to an interim solution rather than something long term because the markets are changing all the time.

"The deficit has been identifiable for many months through the FRS17 companies' accounts, which shows liabilities to pension funds. They have flagged up this potential but it will not be confirmed until March 31."

He said employees' benefits remained as they were in previous years and hoped that over a long-term period, employees would not notice too much of a difference.

He added: "The company have talked about what is pensionable pay and if we are looking at too big an amount, and also early retirement.

"Employees are naturally going to be worried but we will be having discussions."

Pensions shock for Rolls workers - 04/03/2003