Case C-164/00 Katia Beckmann vDynamco Whicheloe MacfarlaneLtd, 4 June 2002.


Ms Beckmann was an employee of Dynamco Whicheloe Macfarlane (DWM). She had been an employee of the National Health Service and the operation of which she was part

had been taken over by DWM. When she was made redundant, she claimed an early retirement pension and other benefits. This was a package that NHS employees had been entitled to. DWM did not pay her any of these benefits. The English High Court referred

the matter to the ECJ, asking whether the benefits in question should have been paid due to the Transfer of undertakings directive or whether they came within an exception in article 3(3) of that directive for old-age, invalidity or survivors’ benefit. The ECJ held that the exception only covered benefits which were paid to an employee when he reached the end of his normal working life as laid down by the structure of the pension scheme in question. It did not cover benefits paid on redundancy even if classified as old-age benefits and calculated by reference to the rules for calculating normal pension benefits. The English court had also sought guidance on whether such benefits were binding on the transferee if they derived from secondary legislation. The ECJ held that all obligations arising from a contract of employment, an employment relationship or a collective agreement were transferred, regardless of whether these obligations are

derived from secondary legislation or are implemented by such legislation.