So-called Beckmann and Martin pension rights are still a bit of a nuisance on transactions when a business is sold out from a company.  On the sale, the employees and their rights transfer under the TUPE regime.  Normally pension rights don’t get dragged along, but the Beckmann and Martin cases suggested that employees’ rights to early retirement or enhancements which are contingent on dismissal – for example on a redundancy exercise following an outsourcing or acquisition, as in Beckmann – would do. The reason is that rights which do not relate to old-age, invalidity or survivors’ benefits, do transfer under the normal TUPE rules. (more…)