Vekoma Transitions to a New Pension Scheme

It had to be quick, very quick, Vekoma's move to a new pension plan. That was due to the circumstances, said Yvonne Paulussen. Vekoma - which, among other things, supplies the Efteling with roller coasters - consists of several operating companies. The 50 or so factory employees were covered by the Metalektro collective labor agreement with mandatory membership in the PME pension fund. The 250 office employees had their own terms of employment and were voluntarily affiliated with PME. After twenty years, the pension fund suddenly announced that the office workers would also have to be covered by the collective bargaining agreement from now on. Vekoma did not agree. In addition, the contribution to PME was very high: about 17% for Vekoma plus 11% for the employees. Paulussen: "Younger employees in particular struggled with that high contribution. They would rather use some of that money to pay off their student debt or buy a house.' PME offered no flexibility in that regard.

In May last year, Vekoma decided to transfer the factory employees to the Metal & Technology collective labor agreement and associated industry pension fund PMT. The office staff would switch to a defined contribution plan. It had to be done quickly, because the contract with the old pension fund expired on December 1. 'Our HR department didn't really have time for anything else in the past year.'

From the very beginning, Paulussen involved employees in the process. According to the HR director, that proved to be the success factor. 'When we ran into problems with the collective bargaining agreement, I immediately called the chairman of the works council and asked: help me. As soon as we made the decision to switch, we let everyone know like crazy. That was a golden move.

It became “a pressure cooker,” Paulussen says. A working group was put together with employees of different ages and departments, the Works Council members, delegates from HR and management. It started with knowledge building, with Miriam Morshuis and Maarten de Jong of Highberg helping. 'People know little about pensions, it's not my hobby either. Very simply, they told us how it works. From general the information became more and more specific.' The working group took a few months to define the contours of the desired new pension plan. The OR's main condition: none of the current employees should be expected to lose out. 'We have promised that. Where we have to compensate, we will do so," Paulussen said.

The task force was later narrowed down to include only the works council, HR, and management to work out the details over two months. Every step was continuously communicated back to the wider workforce. Paulussen: 'Communication remained crucial, via intranet, with videos and presentations. What proved to be a good move was that the Works Council hired its own independent advisor. He soon became convinced that we were right for our employees. Vekoma chose a so-called flat scale with a total premium contribution of 17% at BeFrank, with a compensation scheme for existing employees. There is also a flexible component: employees can choose to save less or - within the fiscal limits - more pension.

Some employees were hesitant to give up their familiar pension plan. Maarten de Jong provided clear, personalized, numerical breakdowns of the impact, which helped win them over. Vekoma used a “passive consent” approach: if employees didn’t respond to the letter detailing the new scheme, they were considered to have agreed. Paulussen is pleased that the transition has now been fully accepted: "There’s no more unrest among employees. I’m really happy we managed to bring this to a successful conclusion."