WORKERS caught up in Hampshire's worst pensions scandal today sent an anxious plea to bosses on the eve of vital talks over their plight.

More than 1,000 people have been told their projected company pension is being cut by up to 80 per cent, leaving hundreds of people facing a bleak retirement. Unions, management and scheme trustees hold a 'summit' meeting tomorrow at American-owned APW Electronics near Southampton in the wake of the final salary crisis.

On the eve of the talks Allen Beard, who heads the newly-formed APW action group, had a public message for them: "Please get the best deal for us."

The former production manager is one of 1,013 deferred and active members who have seen their projected pensions slashed.

A further 246 retired members are unaffected, although their pensions are no longer inflation-proof.

The pension scheme was wound up in the High Court with a £55m deficit to save the company at Chandler's Ford from going under.

But the legal move left members bitterly counting the cost after paying an average £100 a month for up to 25 years.

Mr Beard, 59, said: "We all thought our pensions were rock solid and they were not. It is legalised robbery.

"If you knocked someone on the head and stole their wallet you would be punished. But here the company can take away our pensions and get off scot-free."

Mr Beard worked at APW Electronics for 18 years and paid money into the pension scheme before he was made redundant 18 months ago.

The married father of two was to rely on the £12,000-plus pension in retirement with his wife Nadia at their home at Colden Common, near Winchester.

He is now in line to draw a fraction of that, some £2,400 a year.

Mr Beard is facing the possibility of selling his house. He has also had to rethink plans to visit a daughter in Australia.

His wife Nadia, an administration officer at a special school near Winchester, said: "We are devastated that our plans for retirement have been put on hold."

Mr Beard said: "There's an awful lot of pension fund members who no longer work for the company and we need to be at the meeting to represent them."

SENIOR representatives from unions Amicus and the TGWU will be part of tomorrow's talks, along with pension fund trustees and APW management.

Trustees insist they have acted in the best interests of members, while local management say the situation was forced upon them from the parent company in Wisconsin, USA.

Amicus and the TGWU say they will both be pressing to get better deals for the worst affected, particularly those on the eve of retirement.

They are also expected to ask why the scheme could not have been wound up next April.

Mr Beard said the delay would have given members a fighting chance of being covered by a pensions lifeboat set up by the government, called the Financial Assistance Scheme.

Parent company APW, which makes electronic enclosures and the like, has suffered from a downturn in the telecommunications industry.

At one point it was bailed out of bankruptcy by so-called "vulture capitalists".

APW repeatedly cut jobs afterwards at its factories in Chandler's Ford, Hedge End and Uxbridge.

But those redundancies had an unforeseen impact on the pension scheme pot, say trustees.

Active scheme members dwindled from some 850 to the current 222, placing a growing strain on the level of contributions needed to meet everybody's retirement needs.

APW Electronics said it could not afford the extra £1.5m-a-year contributions needed to keep everything on an even keel, and that it would have been forced into administration if those payments were made.