European court to rule on Waterford Crystal pension entitlements

The European Court of Justice will tomorrow issue a decision which could secure €2.6m in pension entitlements for 10 former Waterford Crystal workers — and many millions more for thousands of other Irish workers.

A European Council directive was introduced in 1980 requiring EU states to ensure that the “necessary measures” were taken to protect the old age benefits of employees and former employees in the event of the employer’s insolvency.

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