Labour Court recommends €1,270 payment in BOC Gases pension dispute

The Labour Court recommended that Boc Gases Limited make a one-off ex-gratia payment of €1,270 to a worker in full and final settlement of a dispute over ill-health pension benefits. The recommendation was dated 22 January 2002. The Services Industrial Professional Technical Union argued that the post-1992 scheme should preserve benefits under the earlier Income Continuance Plan. The Court found a significant difference: under the newer scheme, a worker absent for more than 26 weeks had to retire to continue receiving payment. It considered the current scheme reasonable overall and did not recommend the union’s claim to maintain the earlier plan, but recommended the payment in this first case of its type.