In his twenties, Alexander Soetens came to work at Johnson & Johnson via a circuitous route. "Great career opportunities and excellent working conditions. The pension was also excellent." That there are few questions coming from employees, now that a completely new set-up for the pension is coming, he finds "quite worrying".
Alexander has now worked at Johnson & Johnson for 17 years and is also Chair of the Works Council in Amersfoort (MedTech). He is also part of the Central Works Council (COR), where he is part of the pension working group. "I am in the loop, and I know which way we are going with the pension. In my view, employees are not sufficiently aware of the upcoming changes. It is important that the employer will inform employees properly and that, in turn, employees really take in the information provided. There really is a big change coming. Many people conveniently assume that retirement at J&J will be fine, but there really are some snags in the new scheme we will soon have."
"The risk will be shifting to the employee"
"Due to the new pension law (WTP) passed in the Netherlands, the J&J pension scheme has to be overhauled. Whereas the risk used to be borne by the employer, now it will be shifting to the participant. A key difference from the current system is that soon there will no longer be any commitment about the amount of the pension. I think many colleagues have not yet fully grasped the impact of that."
Alexander understands that it is difficult to communicate when concrete decisions have not yet been taken. "But you can make it clear to people which way things are going, at least to create more awareness".
"Encourage employees"
Alexander believes that the employer, the pension fund and the employees of the various entities should encourage each other to pay attention to the pension changes. "There is a lot of information about this on the pension fund's website. Come to pension meetings, read the newsletters and stay well informed that way. In addition, I think recruitment departments should make new employees more aware of the specifics of our pension."
The COR, the Pension Council (PR) and the employer are jointly working on a careful and balanced consideration of interests, with support from external experts. "I am following this process closely and see how thoroughly the interests of all stakeholders are being examined and mapped out. The aim is to arrive at a transitional arrangement that does justice to these diverse interests and contributes to a future-proof pension. After all, pensions remain one of the most important terms of employment for all of us after our working lives." |
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