Part-time Workers & Pension Rights

Until the last decade most part-time workers were excluded from pension schemes.  A landmark legal ruling in 1994 outlawed this practice and forced employers to allow anyone who was unlawfully excluded an opportunity to pay contributions and backdate their membership of the pension scheme. 

Court decisions since that ruling mean the legal position is now broadly as follows:

• It is unlawful to exclude part-time workers from pension schemes.  
• If part-time workers have been excluded they can bring claims in the Employment Tribunal.
• Tribunal applications must be made whilst still in employment (of the company which excluded you) or within six months of leaving.
• Claims can be backdated to 1976 or the date the employment started, whichever is the later. 
• A successful applicant must be prepared to pay the current value of employee pension contributions during the period they were excluded.