Brewery axes free beer for retired workers

THOUSANDS of retired brewery workers are preparing for a less than merry Christmas after Scottish & Newcastle axed their free beer.

For more than 20 years, pensioners have received vouchers from the firm at Christmas to exchange for Scottish & Newcastle beers and ciders in supermarkets.

But a sharp rise in the number of people claiming the benefit has prompted the Edinburgh-based brewing giant to withdraw the "unaffordable" scheme, which saw workers receive £30 in vouchers each year.

Thomas Cook, 52, retired through ill health 20 years ago after serving in Scottish & Newcastle's purchase ledger (accounts) department at Edinburgh's former Abbey brewery for 13 years.

Although he does not drink himself, Mr Cook used the vouchers to treat family and looked forward to receiving the regular gift from his former employer.

He said: "It's part of a package negotiated many years ago and they seem to have just dropped it.

"There will be a lot of disappointed people who look forward to these vouchers. It is a link to the past.

"This is part of a bigger tradition.

"All the workers used to get a pint at the end of the day and even the horses would get it. That stopped because of the growing stigma of people drinking at work and they replaced it with a voucher system."

He added: "It is nice to treat the pensioners and show you have not forgotten them.

"It just seems mean of them to do this."

The move will affect more than 17,000 former workers across the UK.

A spokesman for Scottish & Newcastle said: "We can confirm that we have written to S&N UK company pensioners informing them that we will not provide vouchers to exchange for our beers and ciders in supermarkets and shops this Christmas.

"The decision to discontinue this benefit was not made lightly and we appreciate that it will cause some disappointment. However, the current business climate demands that we look long and hard at all our costs in order to safeguard the company's long-term prosperity.

"In addition, we have experienced consistent increases in the number of active pensioners and dependants within the company pension plan, which has grown over 15 per cent in the last five years. These two factors have led us to conclude that the continued provision of this benefit is, regrettably, no longer affordable."

But the firm assured all of its former employees that the decision to remove the voucher benefit would not have any impact on their current pension payments. The company will also continue to fund the annual inflationary increase to their pension payment this year, which amounts to a five per cent rise for the majority of scheme members.