Unions are seeking to block the planned sale of Telent, the former GEC, unless they receive guarantees about the safety of its £3 billion pension fund.

Unite will meet next week with Mike O’Brien, the Pensions Minister, to press for a safeguard on the fund, which covers 62,000 people.

News of the meeting came as Pension Corporation (PC), Telent’s suitor, threatened to pull its planned £400 million deal unless the issues around the pension fund were resolved by November 28.

PC bids for companies with big pension schemes in the hope of seizing control of the schemes and running them more efficiently.

Peter Skyte, Unite’s national officer, said: “We intend to do everything we can to block this sale unless we can obtain firm guarantees from Telent and the Pension Corporation over job security, the future of the Telent services business and the assets of the pension scheme, including the escrow account.”

The union’s fight is the latest blow for PC, which is already struggling with an unusual intervention from the Pensions Regulator, which installed three independent trustees on the board of the Telent fund after a request from the group’s existing trustees.

PC said yesterday that it would “continue to seek to engage with the Pensions Regulator and other interested parties to seek a resolution”.

PC has agreed with the Takeover Panel that the trustees’ appointment marks a breach of its offer conditions, which it could invoke to lapse the deal.

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