The question of whether apparent self-employed persons are actually employees and, above all, whether they were employees during their work in the past, is not just a matter of labor law. The classification as an employee has potentially significant pension implications. If it is established in court or any other legal way that a worker qualifies as an employee, the past included, it would in principle also be possible to claim pension entitlements for the past years on the basis of the pension scheme applicable to and/or for the employer.

The topicality project awarded in 2025 is already investigating two questions for cases where no contributions are or can be paid by the employer: 1. are there general legal grounds for denying or limiting the award of pension entitlements, and 2. can grounds for this be included in the pension regulations?

This research aims to broaden and deepen this investigation.