2023-05-26 00:50:42
Friday, May 26, 2023, 00:50
The Supreme Court has issued a ruling to unify doctrine in which it determines that if a pre-retired worker accesses early retirement and, therefore, begins to collect the Social Security pension, he loses the right to continue receiving the compensation agreed with the company when signing the suspension of his employment contract, even though that agreement contemplated the payment until he reached ordinary retirement age.
In the specific case that gave rise to the resolution, the worker and his company (BBVA) signed an agreement in January 2006 whereby the contract was suspended and the bank agreed to pay an amount ( 23,976 euros every six months) until the date on which the employee turned 65, in February 2017. It was understood that this was going to be the moment in which he retired and, therefore, the termination of the contract would be immediately followed by the start of the pension payment. However, upon turning 63, the worker chose to request early retirement. The bank then understood that, even if it was earlier than expected, he was released from continuing to pay him and in January 2016 he no longer made the semi-annual payment.
It should be stressed that the contract was not terminated but suspended, in the same way that is done when an employee takes a leave of absence. In other words, compared to the other option that companies usually take to retire their employees early (dismiss and agree on compensation that compensates them for the loss of purchasing power that occurs while unemployment is collected and later derived from the penalties applied to early retirement), in this case the relationship with the company had not been broken. In fact, although as part of the agreement the worker had to pay his contributions through an agreement with Social Security, during the time the contract was suspended he retained the rights established in the company’s pension plan , to which he continued to make contributions.
Therefore, what the Supreme Court should clarify is whether the worker’s right to receive certain economic amounts up to the age of 65, established in an agreement to suspend the employment contract, is maintained even when the employee goes into early retirement. . That is, if you can combine the collection of the retirement pension with the compensation for early retirement. And the conclusion is that no.
The rapporteur, Judge Ángel Antonio Blasco Pellicer, clarifies that the purpose of these agreements is solely to provide the worker with a source of income at the moment in which, due to the suspension of his employment contract, he stops receiving salary, Therefore, one should not “extend this supply of income to a situation in which it is no longer so essential.” «The parties logically wanted not to leave the worker without any income during his early retirement, but not to double his income (the pension and, in addition, those of the agreement) from the moment of his retirement. (….) It is not reasonable to interpret that, despite the termination of the employment contract and the receipt by the worker of the Social Security retirement pension, the company must continue paying the agreed amounts to the worker in the event of suspension (not termination) of the employment contract, period during which the worker did not receive any pension”.
#Great #blow #Supreme #Court #workers #retire #early