EU pension ruling may net Waterford workers €2.6m

A European court hearing next week in relation to 10 former Waterford Crystal workers could secure them €2.6m in pension entitlements — and many millions more for thousands of other Irish workers.

Waterford Crystal went into receivership in Jan 2009 and its pension schemes were wound up with a deficit of over €100m.

The 10 plaintiffs at the heart of the European Court of Justice hearing, which will take place on Oct 3, are aged about 65 and ceased working with the company on dates in 2008 and 2009.

Given the funding levels in the scheme, each plaintiff was offered payments representing 18% to 30%.

However, their British counterparts in Wedgewood had their pension entitlements secured by Britain’s pension protection fund. According to Jimmy Kelly of workers’ union Unite, those workers received 90% of what they were owed.

When the matter was brought before the Commercial Court last year, the workers said the State had failed to meet its obligations under the EU Insolvency Directive to “protect” workers whose employers become insolvent.

However, during the hearing, then secretary general of the Department of Finance Kevin Cardiff said it was not possible for the Government to guarantee either the €13bn actuarial cost of full pension entitlements in insolvency situations or the lesser unspecified cost of paying less than 100% of the entitlements of persons still working at the time of insolvency.

According to Unite, the EU directive dates to 1980.

“It was continually opposed and delayed in Britain and Ireland by a case fought by the British government, supported by Ireland, which sought to avoid its implementation,” it said. “The landmark ‘Robins’ case was finally decided in 2007 when the European Court of Justice found that the British government was in breach of the directive by not ensuring that pensioners received at least 50% of entitlements in the case of a company insolvency.

“The Westminster parliament recognised they were wrong and introduced the Pension Protection Fund which secured the rights of Waterford Wedgewood workers and all others in a similar position in Britain. The Irish Government did no such thing. It has instead forced 10 former workers at Waterford Crystal to issue separate court proceedings.”