NEWS

Withdrawal of Claim

Zurich, August 18, 2008 - The group of around 30 flight attendants who brought an action in November 2006 with their further entitlements to employer benefits from the Flight Attendants Fund have withdrawn it due to a ruling of the Swiss Federal Supreme Court related to the matter (ruling B4/07). The Social Security Court of the Canton of Zurich issued a corresponding order.
With this withdrawal, all legal actions towards entitlements to benefits are over and have been decided in favour of the GPS.

2007 summary report

Zurich, June 30, 2008 - The summary GPS report for the 2007 financial year was mailed at the end of June. You will also find it under Downloads, together with the accompanying letter. We will be pleased to send you a copy of the full report (which is only available in German) on request.

Bonus payment for pension recipients

Zurich, June 30, 2008 - With the Scheme’s funding ratio still encouragingly high, the Board of Trustees has resolved to make a further bonus payment to all pension recipients. This one-off payment will basically amount to the old-age, disability, widow’s or widower’s pension paid for December 2007. It will not be paid on child’s pensions, certain time-limited pensions or lump-sum payouts effected during 2007. The bonus payment will be distributed in July together with your ordinary monthly pension. You will also receive a corresponding pension statement.

Federal Supreme Court rejects further flight attendant claim

Zurich, June 6, 2008 - The Swiss Federal Supreme Court has rejected a further claim against the GPS arising from the collapse and subsequent liquidation of the SAirGroup.
The claim, which dates from February 9, 2004, was made by a further group of former flight attendants who had not yet reached retirement age and maintained that the GPS was liable to pay an amount equal to a two-year bridging pension. The bridging pension is an employer’s payment, which was accepted by the liquidator during the winding-up of the SAirGroup and the allocation of its remaining assets and was 60% paid out.
When the Canton Zurich Social Security Court rejected the claim, the claimants lodged a further objection with the Swiss Federal Supreme Court. This claim has now been rejected by the Supreme Court in a ruling dated April 25, 2008. In rejecting the claim, the Court supported the GPS’s argument that the claimants had no entitlement to have an employer’s bridging pension paid by their pension scheme.
The Swiss Federal Supreme Court’s ruling can be viewed (in German) at: www.bger.ch/index/juridiction/jurisdiction-inherit-template/jurisdiction-recht/jurisdiction-recht-urteile2000.htm (enter the "Verfahrensnummer" B4/07).
The last claim in this respect, which was also submitted by a group of flight attendants at the end of 2006, is still to be dealt with by the Canton Zurich Social Security Court. Here, too, the GPS has formally requested that the claim be rejected.

Interest payable on savings capital for working insurees

Zurich, July 31, 2007 - In view of the returns achieved on the scheme’s invested assets in 2006, all insurees who were still working on December 31, 2006 will have a further 1.2 % added to their individual savings capital, in addition to the regular annual interest payment of 2.5%.

Federal Supreme Court rules on flight attendant’s GPS claim

Zurich, June 10, 2007 - As previously communicated, a number of former Swissair flight attendants who have not yet reached retirement age have lodged claims against the GPS in connection with the Flight Attendants Fund. Two of these claims were rejected by the Canton Zurich Social Security Court last year; the others are still pending with the court.

One of the two rejected claims was further referred by the plaintiff to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court. On April 17, the Federal Supreme Court also rejected this claim on all points. In particular, the court ruled that at no time were individual deposits paid into the accounts of flight attendant insurees with a view to their early retirement, but that, by contrast, the amounts concerned were always one-off payments made by the Flight Attendants Fund, which was financed by the plaintiff’s employer. As a result, the GPS bears no financial responsibility for the flight attendants concerned.

The Federal Supreme Court’s ruling can be viewed in detail (in German) at:
www.bger.ch/index/juridiction/jurisdiction-inherit-template/jurisdiction-recht/jurisdiction-recht-urteile2000.htm
(When you call up this link, enter the case’s number - B 138/06 - in the search box and click "Suchen".)

In view of this ruling, the GPS will now ask the plaintiffs in the ten claims still pending with the Canton Zurich Social Security Court to withdraw their claims in view of the improbability of their success. If they do not do so, the GPS will ask the court to reject them in view of the Federal Supreme Court’s ruling.

Also pending is a new and similar claim submitted by a former flight attendant at the end of 2006. Here, too, the GPS has asked for the claim to be rejected. But a final ruling is still pending.

As soon as all these claims have been resolved, the GPS can withdraw its own claim against the remaining assets of the SAirGroup, which was lodged as a precautionary measure in response to these flight attendants’ demands.

New office premises and new phone/fax numbers from June 1

Zurich, May 30, 2007 – Pension Fund Services AG (PFS AG), which administers the General Pension Scheme of the SAirGroup (GPS), moves to new business premises in Glattbrugg on June 1. The new office address is: PFS AG, Sägereistrasse 20, CH-8152 Glattbrugg. If you would like to visit us in person, please make an appointment in advance.

The GPS’s postal address remains unchanged as:
General Pension Scheme of the SAirGroup, P.O. Box, CH-8058 Zurich Airport.

Claim lodged by the GPS in Swissair administration proceedings

Zurich, March 15, 2007 - As you may have read in the media or in Circular No.9 from the court-appointed administrator of the assets of Swissair Swiss Air Transport Company Ltd., the GPS has lodged a claim with the Swissair assets for around CHF 676 million. The background to this is as follows.
Under their contract of employment, Swissair’s flight attendants were entitled to retire from their work at age 57 (for women) or 58 (for men). The capital required to finance the bridging pensions payable to these retirees until they reached ordinary retirement age was provided by an institution known as the Flight Attendant Fund. Every time a flight attendant took such early retirement, the capital required to finance their bridging pension was transferred from the Flight Attendant Fund to the GPS, and the GPS then paid the corresponding bridging pension. With the demise of the Swissair Group, this Flight Attendant Fund capital was no longer available to finance such early retirements.
More than a dozen former flight attendants have now lodged claims against the GPS for the early retirement they were promised they could take. These claims have been lodged with the Winterthur Social Security Court. In two cases, a legal ruling has already been made which rejects the flight attendants’ claims on all counts. In one case, the defeated party has now elected to take the matter to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court.
The GPS believes that these flight attendants have no entitlement to its assets or benefits of any kind. This view has, in an initial ruling, been upheld by the Social Security Court.
Until a final ruling is obtained from the Federal Supreme Court, however, the matter remains unresolved. In view of this, and to guard against the eventuality that the Federal Supreme Court might find in favour of the claimants, the GPS has lodged its own claim in the same matter against the assets of Swissair. The corresponding calculations have revealed that, if their claims were accepted, the flight attendants who were unable to benefit from early retirement following the collapse of the Swissair Group would be able to claim a total of around CHF 676 million from the GPS.
The GPS’s claim was rejected in the Swissair asset distribution plan that was recently proposed by the court-appointed administrator. To protect its interests, the GPS has lodged an objection to this, because it believes that the promises made to these flight attendants by the employer under their collective terms of employment should also be financed by the employer.
The subsequent course of these developments will depend on how the Federal Supreme Court rules on the flight attendants’ claims. If these claims are rejected by the Federal Supreme Court, the GPS’s claim against the Swissair assets can also be withdrawn.
We expect it to be a number of years before a final legal ruling is reached on this issue.

New Deed of Trust

Zurich, May 30, 2006 - The new Deed of Trust, which entered into effect on December 1, 2005, was approved by the Zurich Cantonal Occupational Pension Fund Office on December 21, 2005. You will find the new document under Downloads.

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