Bauer and beyond: The changing interpretation of Article 8 of Directive 2008/94/EC (Protection of employees’ pension rights on employer insolvency) and its impact on Member State pension protection arrangements on employer insolvency’

Abstract

This Working Paper looks at the CJEU’s changing interpretation of Article 8 of Directive 2008/94/EC (protecting pension rights on employer insolvency) over the last 14 years through its decisions in Robins, Hogan, Webb-Samann, Hampshire and Bauer. The CJEU both decided that pension protection arrangements did not satisfy the Article 8 requirements and imposed a number of underpins as to the level of protection required. In Bauer the CJEU introduced an additional underpin of a 100% minimum protection level up to the Eurostat at-risk-of-poverty threshold (€14,767 pa after income tax in the Netherlands (for 2019) and £11,142 pa after income tax in the UK (for 2018)).