NETHERLANDS - Dairy products manufacturer Campina and its pensioners’ association, VGC, have been asked by a district judge to solve their differences over pension indexing out of court.

The district judge in Tiel said he hoped Campina, which has a pension fund worth about 900 million euros, and VGC would settle their differences without recourse to the court.

Campina‘s defined benefit fund had asked for the indexation to inflation to be suspended for some time, but the association has so far refused. The judge expects a decision from both the parties on August 11.

Campina’s pensioners won in April a court case to maintain full indexation in 2004, but company is currently appealing.

A representative for the VGC declined to elaborate, while the director of Campina pension fund, Henk Vis, was not available for comment.

Anton Ooijen, chief executive of the Campina pension fund, said in June that full indexation would cause financial trouble for current Campina employees.

Topics