OD FLASH | Supplementary pension: actions for insufficient contributions are subject to a two-year limitation period

Court of Cassation, Social Chamber, 15 April 2026,  n°24-14.551

A former executive employee challenged the amount of his supplementary pension rights, arguing that his employer had failed to properly calculate Agirc-Arrco contributions based on his full remuneration (salary, bonuses, and benefits in kind). After retiring in 2011, he brought a claim before the labour court in 2016 seeking damages for the loss suffered.

The Court of Appeal declared the employee’s claims inadmissible as time-barred, applying the two-year limitation period provided for by Article L. 1471-1 of the French Labour Code. The employee then appealed to the Court of Cassation.

The Court of Cassation dismissed the appeal. It held that an action seeking compensation for insufficient supplementary pension contributions was, prior to the Act of 14 June 2013 on job security, subject to the five-year limitation period under general civil law.

However, the entry into force of the Act of 14 June 2013 introduced specific limitation rules: three years for wage-related claims and two years for all other claims relating to the performance of the employment contract. A new law reducing the limitation period applies immediately to ongoing limitation periods, provided that the total duration does not exceed that provided by the former law. Consequently, a new two-year period began to run from the entry into force of the Act of 14 June 2013, i.e. until 16 June 2015.

The Court of Cassation held that a claim relating to the employer’s obligation to affiliate employees to a supplementary pension scheme and to pay the corresponding contributions falls within the performance of the employment contract and does not constitute a wage claim.

As such, it is subject to a two-year limitation period starting from the moment the employee became aware of the breach, which the Court considered, in this case, to be the date on which the employee’s pension rights were liquidated in 2011.

Accordingly, the claims brought in 2016 were time-barred.