by Ivan Cairo
PARAMARIBO – The Surinamese Airlines (SLM) must continue to pay the pension supplement to a group of former employees. This was determined by subdistrict court judge Eric Rudge in a judgment dated May 12. According to the judge, the airline acted unlawfully by withholding pension contributions from salaries for years without paying them to the pension fund.
The lawsuit was filed by former employee Guno Stekkel and sixteen other retirees. They argued that SLM withheld pension contributions from their wages during their employment, but did not transfer these amounts to the SLM Pension Fund Foundation.
“The judgment has been declared provisionally enforceable. This means that the airline must continue payments immediately, even if it decides to appeal.”
The failure to make these payments caused the pension fund to encounter financial problems. On the instructions of the Central Bank of Suriname and on the basis of a recovery plan, pension benefits had to be reduced. To partly compensate for the loss of income of retirees, SLM decided at the time to pay out an additional monthly supplement.
Uncertainty about continuation
However, this arrangement came under pressure when the pension fund informed pensioners in October 2024 that the supplementation could no longer be guaranteed from November. The payout would depend on the amounts that SLM actually transferred to the fund.
According to the claimants, this created great uncertainty about their financial situation. During the procedure, SLM acknowledged that the withheld premiums had not been paid.
The airline pointed to the consequences of the Covid-19 pandemic, rising operating costs, inflation and increasing competition as causes of the financial problems.
In addition, SLM stated that not the pensioners, but only the pension fund would be authorized to bring such a claim against the company.
Employer remains responsible
The subdistrict court judge did not follow those arguments. The judgment emphasizes that financial or business economic problems do not release an employer from the obligation to pay withheld pension contributions. Because the situation continued after the introduction of the new Civil Code on May 1, 2025, the case was assessed based on the new law.
According to the judge, the failure to pay pension contributions, and the resulting uncertainty about the pension supplement, constitutes an unlawful act against the pensioners. They were directly affected by the consequences and were therefore able to go to court themselves.
Supplementation should be continued
SLM has been ordered to continue making the supplementary payments to the claimants until the pension fund can again pay out the full original pension without reductions. The judge rejected the requested penalty of SRD 100,000 per person per day. According to the law, a penalty cannot be linked to the fulfillment of a purely monetary claim.
A separate compensation of SRD 35,000 in lawyer costs was also rejected, because such costs are already part of the regular legal costs scheme. SLM must pay the plaintiffs’ legal costs. These have been set at SRD 11,530.
The judgment has been declared provisionally enforceable. This means that the airline must continue the payments immediately, even if it decides to appeal.
