Employee Benefit Plans in Europe: A Fragment or a Vehicle of Social Protection?

Abstract

Employee benefit plans occupy a special place in systems of social protection. Traditionally tied to work for an employer in a company, they provide a form of social protection which can be fairly described as fragmentary. That is to say, the rights they carry vary hugely from one employer to another or from one category of employees to another. This observation seems to hold true when we compare the position in various European countries. A certain movement towards harmonization now appears to be emerging, however, under the joint influence of greater European integration and the huge push for reform coming from the authorities in the various countries, aimed at giving people access to arrangements offering supplementary social protection. Not that the actual rights obtained through the employer are becoming standardized; it is rather that supplementary cover provided by or through the employer is being extended or made secure. The main concern of this paper is to identify the various legal approaches being used in Europe to attain this objective, and the difficulties encountered.E m ployee ben efit plans are a com pos ite set of ar range ments now a days seen as com ing un der the head ing of sup ple men tary so cial pro tec tion. But this func tional link to the gen eral sys tem of so cial pro tec tion must not ob scure the re al ity that em ployee ben efit plans are an ex tremely hetero -© In ter na tional So cial Se cu rity As so ci a tion, 2005In ter na tional So cial Se cu rity Re view, Vol. 58, 1/2005 Pub lished by Blackwell Pub lish ing 23 This ar ti cle is a fol low-up to a pa per pre sented at the Fo rum on So cial Pro tec tion in an En larg ing Eu rope, held in Paris from 20 to 22 March 2003 un der the aus pices of MiRe/DREES, the re search arm of the French Min is try of So cial Af fairs, La bour and Sol i dar ity.

“Whence and what art thou” – collective bargaining in occupational pensions?

“…Currently, pensions make headlines whatever age the person is, for great changes have taken place and further significant changes lie ahead as a result of the Green Paper proposals entitled "Simplicity, Security and Choice: Working and Saving for Retirement" (1).…”