Voluntary Supplementary Pension Benefits to Remain in Force in Transfer of Business
- Finland
- 12/15/2009
- Roschier, Attorneys Ltd. - Finland
The Finnish Supreme Court has rendered judgment KKO 2009:83 regarding the scope of application of the Finnish Employment Contracts Act (55/2001, as amended) in transfer of business. In the case in question, the employee had been employed by Sampo Oyj (“Sampo”) since 1965 in internal posting function. The internal posting function was transferred to Itella Oyj (“Itella”) on 1 January 2002 by a transfer of business. Sampo had taken out a voluntary supplementary pension benefit for its employees. Itella had not provided any voluntary supplementary pension for the employee but only the statutory pension. The employee claimed that Itella was liable to retain Sampo’s voluntary supplementary pension benefit in force unchanged after the transfer of business.
The Supreme Court held that the conditions of employment shall remain unchanged in transfer of business and found that there are no grounds to consider the voluntary supplementary pension benefit to be in a different position than other conditions of the employment. Further, the Supreme Court found that the voluntary supplementary pension benefit was a condition of the employee’s employment. Thus, the Supreme Court held that Itella was liable to retain the voluntary supplementary pension benefit in force after the transfer of business.
