The Netherlands: Exclusion of persons entitled to an AOW pension from transition payment does not constitute age discrimination

Pursuant to Article 673 paragraph 7 under b of Book 7 of the Dutch Civil Code, employees who have reached the AOW pension age are not entitled to a transition payment in case their employment agreement is terminated. A discussion about the question of how this exclusion relates to the equal treatment legislation arose in the specialised literature. The Utrecht subdistrict court submitted questions about this to the Supreme Court for a preliminary ruling. On 9 February 2018 the advocate general found that there is no discrimination since the legislator pursues a legitimate purpose, namely preventing persons who are no longer required to perform work in order to support themselves, as they qualify for AOW benefits, from benefiting from a transition payment.

The Supreme Court answered these questions for a preliminary ruling on 20 April 2018 and concluded that the exclusion of persons entitled to an AOW pension from the transition payment does not constitute age discrimination (ECLI:NL:HR:2018:651).