ANGRY pensioners claim they are being denied a fair share of a multi-million pound fund.

Former employees of Unilever, including those who worked at the Brooke Bond Oxo plant in Great Harwood, say that they have missed out on hundreds of millions of pounds in surpluses in the firm's pension funds.

A group of pensioners, who have formed an action group, claim that while current Unilever employees have enjoyed pension contributions holidays and reduced rates, those who have already retired have not had their fair share of extra benefits.

And they say the company is trying to block attempts to have pensioner trustees elected to the Pension Fund Board.

"We believe that the board of trustees has betrayed its duty to act prudently, conscientiously and honestly and in the best interests of all," said committee member Harley Boyd.

Hundreds of East Lancashire people are members of the pension scheme. The Great Harwood factory employed more than 300 people before it closed in 1992.

A spokesman for Unilever confirmed that latest figures showed that the pension fund was in surplus and that contributions from employees had been suspended.

He said about £70 million of the surplus has been used to give increases to pensioners who had left the company a long time ago, or who are currently on lower pensions than other members of the scheme.

The firm added that pension fund members have recently been offered an opportunity to vote on the way the fund is administered and said that pensioners' views were represented on the trustee board.

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