Labour Court recommends pension not be reduced over worker’s 1997 severance package

In 1999, the Labour Court recommended that a worker’s pension should not be reduced by any amount related to her 1997 severance package. The Department Of Finance had argued the voluntary early-retirement payment included the pension lump sum; the Services Industrial Professional Technical Union said the agreement did not provide for that deduction. The worker was a secretarial assistant with 21 years’ service, assigned to work for the Fine Gael Party. The Court found the agreed package made no reference to including a pension gratuity lump sum.