NETHERLANDS - The harbour workers and their employers have announced they will go to court to solve the row with Stichting Optas and Aegon about the workers' pension, as earlier mediation has failed.

The news comes after months of talks between BPVH, which represents the workers covered by the harbour workers' pension fund, Stichting Optas and Aegon, and led by Elco Brinkman, the exiting chairman of the Dutch teachers and civil servants pension fund ABP.

Brinkman announced yesterday his role as mediator had finished, adding he did not see any possibility of an agreement between the parties.

Ton Jansen, chairman of BPVH, said at the end of last month the parties "almost" reached an agreement, but Aegon and Stichting Optas withdrew their support for the agreement at the last minute.

Jansen claimed: "With Aegon we could have come to an agreement, but the stubborn attitude of Stichting Optas is unacceptable."

Media reports claim talks failed over indexation; Stichting Optas and Aegon had made a proposal which BPVH did not accept.

Aegon took over pension insurer Optas last year for €1.3bn, though BVPH has accused Stichting Optas, until then the shareholder of Optas, of "mismanagement and illegitimate behaviour".

BVPH argues after a controversial modification of Optas' statutes, the €1.3bn paid in the sale could be used for "social and cultural means in Rotterdam and Amsterdam".

It was previously discovered proceeds of the sale of the company and associated pension fund were being used as an art subsidy rather than for pension benefits.

The assets are now in the hands of the Optas foundation, which claims the social partners of BPVH never took up a seat on the board of the new company, nor became shareholders, when the pension fund was transformed into insurer Optas Pensioenen 10 years ago.

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