6 - Employee benefits expense

Accounting policies

The Group recognizes wages, salaries, bonuses, and social security contributions as expenses in the financial year when its employees render the associated services.

The table below presents a breakdown of personnel costs:

The table below presents a breakdown across the different business units:

The Group's workforce is based in the Netherlands.

Pensions

Depending on the relevant collective labor agreement or employment contract, the pensions of the employees of Unica Group and its group companies are subject to either the industry pension scheme via Pensioenfonds Metaal & Techniek (approximately 84%), or a company pension scheme via an insurance company (approximately 16%).

The industry-wide scheme is an average salary scheme and, in accordance with IAS 19.34, is accounted for as a defined contribution scheme. Premium and indexation policy for this scheme are determined by the industry pension fund. The company pension schemes also qualify as a defined benefit pension scheme.

Based on the above characteristics, the starting point is that the pension burden to be processed in the reporting period is equal to the pension premiums owed to the pension funds or insurance companies over that period. Unica Group B.V. In the event of a deficit at this industry-wide pension fund, it has no legal or constructive obligation to pay additional contributions other than paying future premiums. Nor can Unica Groep B.V. assert rights to any surpluses in this industry-wide pension fund.

The foregoing also applies to insured schemes placed with an insurance company. For the industry scheme, there is no objective key for allocating a proportional share in the provision for pension obligations, the plan assets and the costs of the pension scheme for Unica Groep B.V. This is the case because the scheme exposes all affiliated companies to actuarial risks related to with current and former employees of other affiliated companies. The data to be provided in that case does not contain a consistent and reliable basis, which means that in our opinion there is no relationship with any economic reality.

The coverage ratio of Pensioenfonds Metaal & Techniek decreased in 2023 compared to 2022, but increased compared to 2021 and is still above 100% at the end of 2023. PMT's coverage ratio at the end of 2023 was 105.5% (2022: 108.1% and 2021: 100.9%).

For 2024, the expected total premium payments are approximately €36.5 million, of which approximately €31.8 million via the industry-wide pension fund and approximately €4.7 million via insurance companies (including top-up schemes).

Directors remuneration

The 2023 employee benefit expense of Unica Groep B.V. and its consolidated subsidiaries do not include (2022: none) remuneration of current and former directors. The remuneration of current and former directors is charged entirely to the parent company Penta Technologies B.V. and amounts to €1,4 million in 2023 (2022: €1,2 million). This includes a pension charge of € 76,000 (2022: € 95,000). There were no other remunerations for directors in 2023 and 2022 other than those presented here.

Remuneration Supervisory Board

The Supervisory Board fees for 2023 totaled € 177,000 (2022 € 170,000) and were also charged entirely to the parent company Penta Technologies B.V.