Retirement will come 2 years later

TALLINN - Despite all the criticism and arguments expressed during the past few weeks, the Estonian parliament on April 7 finally approved the new Pension Law that increases the retirement age for men and women to 65, by 2026. The session in the Riigikogu was intense as the opposition forces worked to the very end to gather a majority against the act. They wanted to reject the reform and send it back for revision but, as already happened in March, the ruling majority showed its unity allowing the reform to pass with 50 votes in favor and 40 against.  Just one month ago, the obstructionism adopted by the opposition forced the parliament to sit and discuss all the amendments coming from the Center Party till late at night in order to bring to a successful end the second reading of the bill. The opposition claimed that before adopting the pension law, much acuter problems had to be solved, and job-related accident and disease insurance and work pension laws had to be adopted.

Social Minister Hanno Pevkur said that the reform will guarantee current and future pensioners a pension increase without the need for a tax rise, pension cuts or foreign labor to be brought to Estonia.
Worries were expressed by the Railway Workers Trade Union, which promised some initiatives against the decision of the parliament, including a picket in front of its doors in Toompea. “To pressure the Riigikogu to decide to raise the pension age in a situation where the life expectancy of our people and the years lived healthily are among the lowest in Europe is a sign of lack of caring,” stated the People’s Union of Estonia party in specifying its position over the reform.
The head of the Estonian Confederation of Employers Tarmo Kriis noted at the public meeting of the Riigikogu Committee on Social Affairs that the pension age should have been raised a few years ago already, reports news agency LETA. He said that “We are rather late with this debate.”

Kriis said that the Confederation of Employers has been addressing this matter for years, and that the average life expectancy has increased in recent decades and the current pension age threshold is outdated. He emphasized that the Health Insurance Fund operates on tax revenue and the social insurance system cannot be managed with the revenue of a decreasing labor force.

Chairman of the Confederation of Trade Unions Harri Taliga commented that trade unions agree that this is a matter that requires debate that involves a large range of stakeholders. “We have always emphasized that if the pension age would be raised, it is most important to consider how people could realistically continue taking part in the labor market, whether there are enough jobs and training options,” he added. “The State has to motivate employers to improve the work environment so that people would not lose their capacity to work,” emphasized Taliga.

The Riigikogu factions of the Center Party, Social Democrats’ Party and of the People’s Union turned to the president on April 8, requesting him not to sign the bill into law. The opposition parties estimated that during the law-making procedures, the government coalition violated good parliamentary practices, violating the Riigikogu Rules of Procedures Act as well as the Riigikogu Internal Rules Act by convening an additional session of the parliament.
The retirement age for men is now 63, and for women it will increase to 63 years in 2016.