An employer who is in a favorable economic position must adjust ongoing pensions despite the fact that he is tied to a transfer price agreement within the group which is partially the source of his profits. This was decided by the Federal Labour Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht, BAG) on 10 February 2015 (ref.no. 3 AZR 37/14). The …

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The  Federal Labour Court (Bundesarbeitsgericht, BAG) ruled on 10 March 2015 (ref. no. 3 AZR 56/14) that even individual pension promises are subject to modification by a works agreement as long as they contain some element of collective nature. The parties disputed if the replacement of a pension plan initially stemming from the year 1976 …

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Whenever  pension plans need to be amended several general principles for the protection of employees must be adhered to. These include amongst others the respect to the level of justified trust and expectation of employees in the grant they have received earlier as well as the principles of proportionality of the intervention must be adhered …

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In Germany the ground rule for pension indexation is that every three years an employer must provide for an increase of ongoing pensions parallel  to the increase of the cost of living, unless his own economic situation calls for an omission of the pension increase. In principle, this ground rule also applies to companies that …

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