6On 18 May 2022, the District Court of Oost-Brabant ruled on the jurisdiction of CNV and FNV.[1] This class action concerns the continuation of the participation in a pension fund after the transfer of the business of XPO Supply Chain Netherlands III. After the transfer of the business, this participation in the pension fund for employees was converted into a (much) cheaper pension scheme, which was detrimental to the employees, according to CNV and FNV.

The District Court ruled that because both FNV and CNV are large nationally operating employees’ associations that represent the material and immaterial interests of employees and inactive persons, they could be considered sufficiently representative in that sense. This applied equally to most of the employees who were not affiliated with the unions. In addition, the District Court decided that the unions could act jointly because it had been neither asserted nor shown that one is more suitable than the other to act as an exclusive representative and they jointly issued a single summons against XPO. In connection with the opt-out and opt-in, the District Court ruled that the decision must be posted on the employees’ associations’ Internet pages. The possibility to opt-out must be published on an (internal) news site and/or in a (staff) magazine. In so doing, the District Court deviated from the requirement to have the announcement made in the national newspapers. The District Court concluded that CNV and FNV are admissible in the proceedings.

[1] District Court of Oost-Brabant, 18 May 2022, ECLI:NL:RBOBR:2022:1995