r) Employee benefits
The Company has defined benefit pension plans for its subsidiaries Puerto Rico Telephone Company, Teléfonos de Mexico, Claro Brasil, and Telekom Austria. Claro Brasil also has medical plans and defined contribution plans and Telekom Austria provides retirement benefits to its employees under a defined contribution plan. The Company recognizes the costs of these plans based upon independent actuarial computations and are determined using the projected unit credit method. The latest actuarial computations were prepared as of December 31, 2017.
Mexico
Mexican subsidiaries have the obligation to pay seniority premiums to personnel based on the Mexican Federal labor law which also establishes the obligation to make certain payments to personnel who cease to provide services under certain circumstances. Pensions (for Telmex) and seniority premiums are determined based on the salary of employees in their final year of service, the number of years worked at and their age at the moment of retirement.
The costs of pensions, seniority premiums and severance benefits, are recognized based on calculations by independent actuaries using the projected unit credit method using financial hypotheses, net of inflation.
Telmex has established an irrevocable trust fund and makes annual contributions to that fund.
Puerto Rico
In Puerto Rico, the Company has noncontributing pension plans for full-time employees, which are tax qualified as they meet Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 requirements.
The pension benefit is composed of two elements:
(i) An employee receives an annuity at retirement if they meet the rule of 85 (age at retirement plus accumulated years of service). The annuity is calculated by applying a percentage times years of services to the last three years of salary.
(ii) The second element is a lump-sum benefit based on years of service ranging from 9 to 12 months of salary. Health care and life insurance benefits are also provided to retirees under a separate plan (post-retirement benefits).
Brazil
Claro Brasil provides a defined benefit plan and post-retirement medical assistance plan, and a defined contribution plan, through a pension fund that supplements the government retirement benefit for certain employees.
Under the defined benefit plan, the Company makes monthly contributions to the pension fund equal to 17.5% of the employee’s aggregate salary. In addition, the Company contributes a percentage of the aggregate salary base for funding the post-retirement medical assistance plan for the employees who remain in the defined benefit plan. Each employee makes contributions to the pension fund based on age and salary. All newly hired employees automatically adhere to the defined contribution plan and no further admittance to the defined benefit plan is allowed. For the defined contribution plan, see Note 17.
Austria
Telekom Austria provides retirement benefits to its employees under defined contribution and defined benefit plans.
The Company pays contributions to publicly or privately administered pension or severance insurance plans on mandatory or contractual basis. Once the contributions have been paid, the Company has no further payment obligations. The regular contributions are recognized as employee expenses in the year in which they are due.
All other employee benefit obligations provided in Austria are unfunded defined benefit plans for which the Company records provisions which are calculated using the projected unit credit method. The future benefit obligations are measured using actuarial methods on the basis of an appropriate assessment of the discount rate, rate of employee turnover, rate of compensation increase and rate of increase in pensions.
For severance and pensions, the subsidiary recognizes actuarial gains and losses in other comprehensive income. The re-measurement of defined benefit plans relates to actuarial gains and losses only as Telekom Austria holds no plan assets. Interest expense related to employee benefit obligations is reported in the Valuation of derivatives, interests cost from labor obligation and other financial item, net.
Other subsidiaries
For the rest of the Company’s subsidiaries, there are no defined benefit plans or compulsory defined contribution structures. However, certain subsidiaries make contributions to national pension, social security and severance plans in accordance with the percentages and rates established by the applicable social security and labor laws of each country. Such contributions are made to the entities designated by the countries legislation and are recorded as direct labor expenses in the consolidated statements of comprehensive income as they are incurred.
Remeasurements of defined benefit plans, comprising of actuarial gains and losses, the effect of the asset ceiling, excluding net interest and the return on plan assets (excluding net interest), are recognized immediately in the consolidated statements of financial position with a corresponding debit or credit to retained earnings through OCI in the period in which they occur. Re-measurements are not reclassified to profit or loss in subsequent periods.
Past service costs are recognized in profit or loss on the earlier of:
| (i) | The date of the plan amendment or curtailment, and |
| (ii) | The date that the Company recognizes restructuring-related costs |
Net interest on liability for defined benefits is calculated by applying the discount rate to the net defined benefit liability or asset and it is recognized in the “valuation of derivatives, interest cost from labor obligations and other financial items” in the consolidated statements of comprehensive income. The Company recognizes the changes in the net defined benefit obligation under “Cost of sales and services” and “Commercial, administrative and general expenses” in the consolidated statements of comprehensive income.
Paid absences
The Company recognizes a provision for the cost of paid absences, such as vacation time, based on the accrual method.