In a new collective labour agreement, Dutch storage and shipping company Eurotank Amsterdam agreed to arrange that dock workers can retire at age 65, even after the increase in the state pension age to 66 in 2020.

In the agreement, the employer and employees agreed to collectively save for this, making Eurotank the first company taking matters in its own hands after the new Dutch pension agreement was announced.

This summer social affairs minister Henk Kamp and the social partners agreed to raise the pension age from 65 to 66 in 2020 and to 67 in 2025. The agreement, set to be introduced in 2014, led to a heated debate and several unions fought for leniency for manual workers. At the moment the minister is working on an arrangement to enable workers with lower incomes, who often do manual work, to retire earlier without losing too much retirement income.

Director of union FNV Bondgenoten Ruud Wennekes, who initiated the arrangement at Eurotank, told the Dutch press: “In The Hague they have thought up this insane longer working idea, although they have no idea what a manual profession is. Even before the law has been introduced, we have already fixed it.”

Eurotank Amsterdam is specialised in storing and shipping oil products and for most employees loading and unloading is their daily job. Under the agreement, Eurotank will fill the pension pot to two thirds, with the employees paying for the rest. The maximum pension that can be built up is €20,000.

The Eurotank agreement follows the rules of the new so-called vitality arrangement, which is replacing the lifetime arrangement in 2013 which has been abolished because minister Kamp believes it is too often used to retire earlier.

A spokesperson of minister Kamp said: “The vitality arrangement is not meant to enable people to stop working earlier. But the government can’t stop this.” However, he added that a pension pot of €20,000 is not enough to make up for the lifelong discount of 6.5 per cent on the state pension, which is part of the new pension agreement and aims to encourage people to work longer.

But Wennekes believes the pension pot would definitely cover the damage of the state pension reduction. “I have already shown the agreement to two other employers and my colleague directors are very interested.”

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