A father who faces losing his pension after 35 years' loyal service to a Bradford engineering firm today told how he felt like a victim of 'corporate robbery'.

Alan Potts, 53, spoke of the human consequences of the Federal Mogul pensions crisis after plans to inject £71 million into the fund were rejected by its independent trustee, further delaying any resolution to the problems.

Mr Potts is one of 77 staff still working at Federal Mogul's piston manufacturing plant in the city who fear they could lose all the money they are entitled to amid the crisis. Yesterday, the independent trustee in charge of the pension fund turned down an offer of £71 million from the company's American bondholders, saying it was insufficient to cover the cost of the scheme.

Hundreds of existing and former workers of the company - formerly Hepworth and Grandage and later Turner and Newall - could now have to wait months until they discover the fate of their pensions.

Today Amicus union regional organiser Dick Croft insisted it was "not the end of the road" for the scheme.

But he expected that it could take until "the very last minute" for any deal to be achieved, and that could mean December when the parent company is due to come out of administration.

"We are still working on a number of options and we have not given up," he said.

"We will be meeting again next week with the shop stewards from around the country about where we go from here."

The union is especially keen to assist the 77 staff who signed agreements last December regarding their pension entitlements and are now working their notice periods.

Mr Potts, who is married with two grown up children, said the mood among the remaining staff was worsening by the day.

"Most of us started work here when it was a family-owned company, but I never thought I would live to see the day that employees were treated in this way," he said.

"If people weren't made up of the characters we are in the north of England, then there would be some serious emotional problems."

He said many staff had been making plans for their retirement when the "bombshell" dropped in July that the pension scheme had been frozen.

"Everybody believed that this type of thing could not happen," he said. "It is basically like everybody that is left is wandering about in a bit of a dream. You go home to your wife and try to explain something that isn't even clear to yourself. I don't think the people in charge realise the human side of it.

"To say the way we have been treated is a slap in the face is an understatement. It takes a lot to knock it out of me, but I have lost every bit of trust and every morsel of loyalty.

"We are just ordinary working people who planned for our futures like we were told to.

"We weren't expecting to buy ourselves Rolls Royces or anything like that, but we expected what was rightfully ours.

"It is like somebody breaking into your house, taking your bank book, emptying your account, and walking away.

"And they say there is nothing wrong with that. It feels like corporate robbery."

The pensions crisis threatens to be the biggest in UK history if the scheme is wound up, affecting about 40,000 members.

Yesterday's decision by the independent trustee - the Alexander Forbes Pension Trust - to reject the £71 million cash injection followed high profile talks with union officials and the bondholders attempting to take the company out of Chapter 11 bankruptcy in the US.

A spokesman for Alexander Forbes said that meeting had failed to result in a offer sufficient to satisfy the needs of the UK pension scheme.

Administrators Kroll said it believed it could realise a higher value for the pension fund by selling the UK-based businesses than accepting the offer that had been tabled. But it said talks were ongoing.

Mr Croft admitted there would be great concern about the further delay.

"At the end of the day, we are talking about people's livelihoods," he said.

"People have been encouraged to save their salaries for their old age, and Yorkshire people are known to be among the best savers in the UK. This is what has made people so angry after they have been brought up on the belief they had to save for their old age and they are becoming more and more frustrated."

Bradford South MP and Department of Trade and Industry Minister Gerry Sutcliffe has been working with Amicus in an effort to find a solution to the crisis.

No decision has been made on whether the workers would be entitled to access the Government's new national pension safety net due to be established next year. But the sheer scale of the Federal Mogul crisis means it would prove almost insufficient to cope with the number of claims involved.

Mr Sutcliffe said he was hopeful the scheme would not be wound up.

"I think that this is a sad position for the workers to be in through no fault of their own," he said.

"We have asked the Government to do what it can but first we need to make sure that the company meets its requirements."