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OCCUPATIONAL PENSION

(The term rente complémentaire is used synonymously.) Expression denoting a company pension intended to supplement the statutory (compulsory) old-age or invalidity pensions by guaranteeing employees a specified percentage of their last level of pay, provided either through the financing of a guarantee fund or through the payment of contributions, either by the employer alone or by both employer and employees, into a pension scheme with a private-sector insurer.

At present in Luxembourg there is no legal obligation on employers to provide such a company scheme, nor indeed any national legal regulation of the matter, despite the potential risks to employees in the event of their employer's insolvency. In its well-known Barber judgment (Case C-262/88 [1990] ECR I-1889), the European Court of Justice held that an occupational pension constitutes a component of pay within the meaning of Article 119 of the Treaty and that a difference between men and women in the age of entitlement to such a pension constitutes discrimination. As concerns statutory social security benefits, by contrast, Directive 79/7/EEC on the progressive implementation of the principle of equal treatment for men and women in matters of social security continues to authorize the maintenance of different provisions regarding the statutory retirement age. See equal treatment for men and women , invalidity pension , old-age pension , remuneration package .

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