Many years ago the European Court decided that some short term supplementary payments payable on redundancy or restructuring could transfer under TUPE to the transferee of the undertaking (Beckmann v Dynamco and South Bank University v Martin).  These cases involved the public sector and Whitley Council-negotiated terms*.  The Court decided that the right to unfunded supplementary pension payments payable before normal pension age (when the main pension started) would become a liability of the transferee.  It has always been unclear – and controversial – how, if at all, the principle might apply to early retirement rights under funded private sector occupational pension schemes. (more…)