ExxonMobil must compensate retired workers
In the media image: Lukasz Radziejewski on Unsplash
A Dutch court has ruled that ExxonMobil must make additional resources available for its retired employees and negotiate compensation for them with the Works Council. Stefan Sagel, Professor of Labour Law, commented in ‘NRC’.
The ExxonMobil Works Council (ondernemingsraad, OR) filed a lawsuit after workers at ExxonMobil were given a 7% pay rise in 2024, but no pension adjustments were made for retired workers. According to the Works Council, this was an exceptional situation in which, based on previous indexation agreements, the group of companies should have deployed additional resources to compensate retired workers. The Rotterdam District Court largely agreed with the Works Council and ruled that ExxonMobil cannot simply refrain from taking action.
According to Sagel, 'it is unusual for a works council to go to court', as agreements about employment conditions are usually made with the trade unions instead of the works council. Sagel explains that in this case the court in Rotterdam applies the standard 'interpretation norm' for contracts to the indexation agreements with the ExxonMobil Works Council. In doing so, the court looks not only at the literal wording, but primarily at the parties’ intentions and what they could reasonably expect from one another. This differs from the collective labour agreement (CAO) norm, where the precise written wording is decisive.
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Read the full article in NRC (€, in Dutch)