BAG of Feb. 19, 2019 – 3 AZR
219/18
So-called "late marriage clauses" in
surviving dependants' pension commitments may constitute an
unjustified age discrimination and can therefore be ineffective,
unless a specific cut-off date can be justified on the basis of a
specific connecting factor particularly linked to the legal
structure principles of company pension schemes.
Facts of the case
A widow filed a complaint with regard to a
widow's pension before the labor courts. The deceased husband
of the plaintiff had received the commitment of a company pension
from his employer in a company agreement, which also included a
surviving dependants' pension for his wife. The widow's
pension was to be 60 per cent of the employee's pension at the
time of his death. The pension scheme limited the right to a
widow's pension. The pension was only to be granted on the
condition that the husband had not yet been sixty-three years old,
and the widow not yet sixty, at the time
