By Bart Smet, Paul Maenhaut and Bert Aerts

Since the cancellation of the special crew pension system in December 2011, the restoration of pension rules matching the particularities of our profession has been at the top of BeCA’s agenda. The big questions remain the same: ‘Where are we now?’ and ‘In which direction do we want to go?’ But first, a small recap of the past years is needed.

(For a more detailed overview of BeCA’s position and arguments, please download our green paper here)

How does the Belgian Pension system work?

The Belgian system is based on solidarity, which means that the pension system is financed by the social security contributions of the working population. It is based on 3 elements:

• The moment you are pensionable: it depends on your age and/or the years assimilated to working years, including your factored pilot years before 2012.
• The calculation of your pension allowance: it depends on your yearly wages, the double ceiling if applicable and the career length factor: 45 or 30.
• The moment when your pension income will be paid: it depends on the system in which you build up your rights: flying personnel, general, public…

In general, your gross annual pension is calculated as 60% (75% in some particular cases) of your average (capped) gross annual salary, over a fixed career length.

In maths:

Year 1:
P1 = lowest of ceiling 1 or gross annual salary 1
Year 2:
P2 = lowest of ceiling 2 or gross annual salary 2
…
Year N:
PN = lowest of ceiling N or gross annual salary N

——————————————————-
Pension = 60% * (P1 + P2 + … + PN ) / denominator

The whole pension calculation depends on the choice of the parameters: the ceilings and the nominal career length denominator. For a normal employee, the ceiling today is 53.000 EUR/year, and the total career length is 45 years.

Before 2012, pilots and employers paid extra social charges that allowed pilots to:

• Retire earlier (after only 30 years, instead of 45 years)
• Have higher pension allowances (capped at 82.000 EUR instead of 53.000 EUR at today’s index), called the “double ceiling”, which in reality eroded to about a factor 1,60.

In December 2011, the Belgian government hijacked our Pension System. Thanks to BeCA’s extensive lobbying, transitional measures were implemented:

Pilots born before 1957 (min. 55 years old on 31 December 2011)

Their pension is calculated as follows, based on their proven aviation years:

• 20+ years: calculated with denominator 30. Pension based on ‘double’ ceiling.
• < 20 years: calculated with denominator 45. Pension based on ‘double’ ceiling.

Pilots born after 1957

Their pension is calculated differently for aviation years until and after 2011:

• until 2011: calculated with denominator 30. Pension based on double ceiling.
• from 2012: calculated with denominator 45. Pension based on single ceiling.

It is important to bear in mind that a pilot who retires when he/she is pensionable before reaching the ‘general’ age of pension thanks to his/her factored years will only receive the pension allowances linked to his/her aviation career. The “full” pension will only be paid when he/she reaches the age of pension.

The change in pension age created another problem: the payment of the extra legal pension (group insurance) was due at your legal age of pension. Meanwhile, the law changed on 1 January 2016 (see box on the next page for more details):

If you are pensionable, you CAN ask the payment of your group insurance provided the clause is included in the general conditions of your group insurance. You can check this by contacting your company’s BeCA representative.

If you are actually taking your pension, you MUST ask the payment of your group insurance.

Why should pilots have a specific and different pension system?

Since 9/11/2001, our working conditions changed drastically: we all saw a huge increase in workload. Due to the cancellation of our special pension system, we have to work 50% longer (career length of 45 years instead of 30 years). However, flying staff dies on average younger than the general population. These factors made us dig a little deeper into the issue. We came up with several arguments to prove that pilots should be entitled to a lower pension age:

• Why should the general pension system be applicable to us, while not benefitting from many basic rights listed in the Belgian Labour Law?
  • Rest on Sundays
  • Daily and weekly restriction on working time, combined with the right for overtime-payment and extra rest.
  • Rest times
  • Breaks (pauses) during your working day
  • Restrictions on night work
  • Respecting work rosters
• Arguments based on the restrictions imposed by our Flight Crew Licence and our Medical certificate:
  • In some extreme cases, you can be considered 100% fit to work by your Health Service doctor, but your medical licence will not be valid anymore.
  • Furthermore, EASA does not allow two 60+ pilots to fly together and the privileges of a CPL or ATPL cannot be exercised above 65 years.
• Scientific Research gives us more arguments:
  • Noise burden
  • Air humidity and quality
  • Air pressure changes
  • Non ergonomic workplace
  • Unhygienic workplace
  • Stress level
  • Biorhythm changes
  • Cosmic radiation
  • Toxic air syndrome
• We are a large contributor to the social system and this should be taken into account when looking at our specific needs.

What are the solutions?

We built a case-file (our ‘Green paper’) using all those arguments and we presented it to the Cabinet of the Ministry of Pension on 20 April 2016. We were very well received and our very detailed file impressed Mr Bacquelaine’s counsellor. We explained to him that we do not want any pilot who is able and willing to work to be taken away from his/her pilot seat. At the same time, we need a solid, viable solution for the ones who will not be able to make it till the age of 65 due to medical or proficiency issues. We presented our “flight plan”, what we would like to have in an ideal world and how these solutions could be implemented with the help of the Belgian government. We tried to use existing systems and explained how they could be tailored to our needs:

• The system of Heavy Profession (zwaar beroep / métier pénible) and SWT/RCC (Stelsel van werkloosheid met bedrijfstoeslag / Régime de chômage avec complément d’entreprise).

The basis is there, but the ceilings are too low compared to our current revenues. The government could however adapt the system to our needs.

• Health Service:

Being considered unfit to work could be linked to our medical licence. This would solve the discussion between unfit to work or unfit to fly. But again, the ceilings used in this system are way too low. The current system could be an adequate solution for our pension problem provided the ceilings are adapted.

• A return to the old pilot pension system:

This would reinstate the old contributions and rights.

• A new system based on a deferred salary:

This could be done for the complete aviation sector. It would require some contributions, but a lot lower than in the old pilot’s pension system.

We also explained to the cabinet the abuses that we noticed in the past. In 2012, several airlines forced their 55+ to take their pension by threatening them of being laid off with reduced compensations since they had already reached the age of retirement. They were then re-hired as false-contractors or part-timers. Other pilots, who were no more able to perform their duties up to standards, continued to work due to financial pressure.

The Cabinet promised us to investigate what could be done to solve our pension issue. After a few weeks, we got direct contacts with other ministries, but some of our key questions are still unanswered. We are now planning some follow-up meetings and we will keep on lobbying the different ministries to find a solution in line with the particularities of our profession. Things are moving, slowly, but we keep on pushing.

On the other hand, airlines are defending their interests at PC level (Comité Paritaire / Paritarair Comité). At first, they were very happy with the abolishment of the former pilot’s pension system: huge savings were made since employers did not have to pay extra pension contributions anymore. But there is a flipside of the same coin. With the legal pension age raised to 65, the older, more expensive pilots will continue to fly and higher wages need to be paid during an extra period of 10 years. The airlines did their homework as well and it seems they want the recognitions for heavy profession ASAP so they can lay off the older and more expensive pilots at the age of 58 or 60. This would generate a huge cost saving for the airlines. The pilots concerned would be forced into unemployment with a total package of a few hundred EUR above the unemployment allowance. This deal could be done at sector or company level.

Therefore, together with the unions, we keep an eye on what is happening and we are trying to get our seat at the table at the different levels. Stay tuned for more updates!