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Early retirement benefits
[ch 12: page 397]Unlike pensions, early retirement provisions do transfer. This was confirmed in the following landmark European case brought by UNISON concerning rights for over-50s:
An NHS scheme entitled redundant employees aged over 50 to an early retirement pension. The ECJ held that early retirement benefits are not “old-age, invalidity or survivors’ benefits” and are therefore not covered by the pensions exclusion, which it said must be narrowly interpreted. Instead, these contract terms transferred to the new employer.
Beckmann v Dynamco Whicheloe Macfarlane C-164/00 [2002] All ER(D)05
The case was followed in Martin and others v South Bank University Case C-4/01 [2004] IRLR 74.
Beckmann was followed again in Proctor & Gamble Limited v SCA [2012] EWHC 1257. In this case, the Court of Appeal confirmed that liability for early retirement benefits transfers to the new owner on a TUPE transfer even if the benefit was discretionary. However, the transferee was only obliged to meet the liability for the benefit until normal retirement age and not beyond.