Pension Reform: Social Partners Criticize

The pension reform planned by the government before the summer is facing significant criticism from the social partners. The Chamber of Labor describes the proposed sustainability mechanism in its review statement as "unsuccessful." The Chamber of Commerce, on the other hand, expects that the partial pension will not be successful and criticizes that the phased retirement is not sufficiently restricted.

The employer representation points out that there will still be the possibility to pursue a minor employment alongside receiving an early retirement pension. This alternative will be the more attractive option for numerous pensioners, the Chamber of Commerce is convinced in its review statement. Also, the non-payment of the "old severance pay" before the start of the partial pension will likely negatively influence the acceptance of the partial pension model.

Furthermore, it is criticized that self-employed individuals are effectively excluded from the partial pension. This is because it is based on a reduction in working hours, which naturally is not applicable to the self-employed. Therefore, the draft law should be supplemented with a practical partial pension regulation for self-employed individuals. Regarding the restriction of phased retirement, the Chamber of Commerce suggests it should only be possible to start three years before the regular retirement age, not three years before the start of a corridor pension. In any case, a restriction to two years would be welcomed.

Chamber of Labor against Sustainability Mechanism

While the Chamber of Labor explicitly welcomes this new pension form, with the exception of details such as the fact that there is already a partial pension and therefore a new name should be sought, the employee representation rejects the sustainability mechanism. This is intended to enforce measures in the system if cost containment does not bring the desired results by 2030.

The AK opposes the chosen cost path. Specifically, it is demanded to ensure that cost-increasing measures, which are already foreseeable, are not included in the target path and in the calculation of the exceedance. Essentially, this is aimed at the planned flat tax for additional income in retirement, which the chamber is already extremely skeptical about.

The pension deferral will no longer be worthwhile if additional income to the pension is massively favored, the AK predicts in its review statement. Due to the enormous costs for the public sector, the flat tax provides tailwind for the demand to raise the regular retirement age.

Chamber of Commerce also not entirely happy with Sustainability Mechanism

The Chamber of Commerce is also not entirely happy with the sustainability mechanism, even though it welcomes such a lever in principle. However, it finds that the countermeasures would take effect far too late. Measures that might be decided in 2030 could only come into force long after for reasons of trust protection. Only the mentioned measure "increase in the contribution rate" could be implemented immediately, but would then also increase ancillary wage costs.

(APA/Red)

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