BITTER pensioners today said they had suffered a "double whammy" from the company many of them served for more than 40 years.

As the Evening Press reported recently, brewing giant Scottish & Newcastle was accused of "penny-pinching" after calling time on free beer for their retired workers in Tadcaster.

Now it has emerged that the company - which made pre-tax profits of £471 million last year - has also put a stop to the pensioners' annual reunion lunch.

About 270 retired employees from John Smith's, in Tadcaster, attended the 2004 Christmas reunion dinner at the Great Yorkshire Showground in Harrogate last December. According to retired drayman Robert Osborne, a John Smith's manager made a speech after the lunch, extolling the virtues of the annual get-together.

Mr Osborne, 63, of Dunnington, near York, said the manager told the pensioners that the lunch was not about a free meal and drinks.

It was more about keeping in touch and enjoying the company of old friends and colleagues.

But a few weeks later, the pensioners discovered that the reunion lunch had been axed.

The shock news came via the brewery newsletter, and followed hard on the heels of the company's decision to close the "wet canteen" at John Smith's premises in Tadcaster, where pensioners had enjoyed two pints of free ale, three days a week.

The brewery denied the wet canteen closure was a cost-cutting exercise, saying it had decided to "standardise" perks across the country.

Putting a stop to the two traditional perks has left the retired employees with a bitter taste.

Mr Osborne said: "For the loyal John Smith's pensioners, some with a working lifetime of service to the company, it is a crying shame.

"We were told we would get, instead, a £30 voucher each Christmas to spend on company products."

A drayman for 34 years, Mr Osborne said: "Everybody really looked forward to the reunion lunch. It gave some of the older ones a chance to get out of their homes and have a chat with old colleagues."

Sid Pickard, 82, of Tadcaster, who worked at John Smith's for 48 years, said today the reunion lunch blow was a "double whammy".

A company spokesman confirmed they were ceasing to fund all organised events, including reunion lunches, from 2005.

He said: "We firmly believe that increasing the value of our Christmas gift vouchers by 50 per cent for all 17,000 company pensioners is a much fairer way of supporting our former colleagues."

Updated: 10:20 Tuesday, February 08, 2005