Analysis: Former Waterford Wedgwood staff have earned their pensions

It was the ultimate blue-chip investment, a must in every sensible Irish portfolio. But even its storied history and the marketing genius of Anthony O'Reilly were not enough to avert the slow decline and ultimate collapse of Waterford Wedgwood.

When it did in January 2009, close to 1,800 workers did not just lose their jobs: they discovered they would have little or no pension on which to retire.

Now, almost six years later and following the intervention of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) which scolded the Government for being in “serious breach” of its obligations to protect the workers, the Cabinet has agreed a €178 million package.

In dismissing the State’s pleading that its straitened circumstances meant it should be obliged only to provide a lower level of protection – essentially the State pension – the ECJ ruled in April 2013, that any pension to the workers affected should be “not less than 49 per cent” of their benefits.

Fund agreed

From the workers’ perspective, the target was the 90 per cent the UK government had agreed to fund for workers within the Wedgwood business of the group.

In the event, the proposed settlement is, as was always likely somewhere between the two.

All of the 1,774 workers affected will receive a tax free lump sum payment of €1,200 for every year of service.

In addition, both workers at the plant when it closed and “deferred pensioners” – former Waterford Crystal workers who had left the company but had not yet retired and relied on its defined benefit, or final salary, pension scheme for their income in retirement – will receive an annual pension.

Those whose annual pension would have been €12,000 or less – estimated by the Department of Social Protection to account for about 70 per cent of all former Waterford Crystal workers – will receive 90 per cent of their entitlement.

Anyone due somewhere between €12,000 and €24,000 will get 90 per cent of the first €12,000 and 67 per cent of anything due above that.

For those entitled to pensions above €24,000, 50 per cent of anything due over the €24,000 threshold is paid alongside 67 per cent of the sum between €12,000 and €24,000 and 90 per cent of the amount due under €12,000.

Decision

Workers will meet this weekend to decide whether to accept. They remain at a loss on their original promised benefits but so is almost every member of the defined benefit scheme that has been wound up in recent years.

With the bulk of former staff getting 90 per cent of their entitlement alongside their lump sum – and even those expecting a higher pension of up to €24,000 receiving at least 78.5 per cent of that sum annually – it would be a surprise if the figures agreed through the intercession of the Labour Relations Commission did not win approval. Failure to do so would see the issue returned to the High Court in January, with no guarantee of a better outcome.

Assuming that is the case, the Waterford Crystal saga will finally draw to a close with the workers, and their representatives, due great credit for their persistence in the face of the indifference of successive governments to their plight.

For the Government, it is a chance to close the door on an episode which reflects badly on its attention to employee rights as it touts Ireland as the "best little country" in the world to do business.

Following the ECJ ruling, it has, changed the law to address double insolvencies – where both a company and its pension scheme are bust – but it remains reluctant to engage properly in comprehensive overhaul of the Irish pension system.