Beckmann v Dynamco Whicheloe Macfarlane Ltd
[2002] IRLR 578 (CJEU Case C-164/00)
Ratio Decidendi
Early retirement and redundancy benefits payable under an occupational pension scheme are not excluded from the Transfer of Undertakings Regulations (TUPE) merely because they are paid from a pension scheme. Only old age, invalidity, and survivors' benefits are excluded.
ਤੱਥ
Mrs Beckmann was employed by a company whose undertaking was transferred to Dynamco. She was subsequently made redundant and claimed enhanced early retirement benefits under the original employer's pension scheme. Dynamco argued that pension rights did not transfer under TUPE.
ਫੈਸਲੇ ਦਾ ਸਾਰ
The CJEU held that benefits triggered by redundancy or early retirement, even when administered through a pension scheme, are not 'old age benefits' excluded from the Acquired Rights Directive. They are therefore transferable employment rights under TUPE. This distinction depends on the event triggering the benefit, not the fund from which it is paid.
ਮੁੱਖ ਹਵਾਲੇ
"The decisive criterion for the purpose of determining whether benefits fall within the exclusion is not the source of their funding but rather the nature of the benefits, that is to say whether they are paid on the occasion of the event of old age, invalidity or death."
— The Court
ਬਾਅਦ ਦਾ ਇਲਾਜ
Applied consistently in TUPE transfers where early retirement and redundancy pension benefits are at issue.
Confirmed in Martin v South Bank University (C-4/01) regarding enhanced early retirement benefits.