This was said by the minister yesterday at a joint meeting, with about a hundred trade unionists, members of the Union Alliance Assembly and the Main Board of the Free Trade Unions. The general secretaries of both trade unions said after the meeting that they will once again submit their list of minimum requirements to the Government, and if rejected, they will start collecting signatures for organizing a referendum on this law and preparing for a general strike. Most of the representatives of the largest trade union organizations said at the meeting that they are ready for a general strike. The minister said after the meeting he would not withdraw the controversial draft bill, although during a meeting at a time of heated debate he offered it. He also pointed out that the unions' suggestions are restoring to old terms, increasing future pension payments, endangering government finances, and not accepting the IMF and the EU from which the government must seek approval.
No unionist has supported the attitudes of the minister that creating the difficulties for retiring is the path to stable public finances and that it will only be approved by the IMF and the EU, but have all responded violently to this statement, stating that the IMF requires stable public finances, but not how they will come to them. The IMF has proposed reducing public spending to the government for a few years, not to build the highway and prevent early retirement. The government only accepted the latest option. The unionists have proposed to charge over 500 million in tax debt to pay taxes and contributions from privileged employers and businessmen to counteract the grey economy, get a tax on luxury, reduce the number of state officials and their privileges, punish the officials for whose mistakes makes the State lose millions. The draft envisages that both future retirement needs meet both conditions - 40 years of service and 65 years of age. Unless these two conditions are met, employees may retire at 67 years of age and at least 15 years of service, and only earlier if they meet the more stringent conditions for a disability pension. Also, it has significantly reduced the benefits of overtime to employees and abolished work-life computation for which insurance has not been paid (job training, better traineeships for disabled ...) and the conditions for ensuring family retirement are also tighter.
Unions have offered four conditions which, as announced, they will not give up, namely that the retirement conditions are 40 years of labor or 65 years of age, to use the 20 best years of benefits per insured person, not all 40 years, as well as to raise the lowest pensions to 80 percent of the minimum earnings, or to 55 percent of the average earnings when it comes to old age pension earned on the basis of 40 years of service. The minimum old-age pension is now 125 euros, and according to the union's suggestion, to the current minimum wage of 193 euros, the minimum pension would be 154 euros. If the minimum earnings were raised to the expected 250 euros, the minimum pension would be 200 euros. The minimum pension for 40 years of service now amounts to about 150 euros, while according to this proposal it would be increased to about 280 euros.
The minister finally said he would send his draft to the Government, but also the remarks by the trade unions, so "let them decide".
General Secretary of Trade Unions Duško Zarubica said after the meeting that they gave another chance for social dialogue and that the "ball" is now in the court of the Government. He said he would send his proposals to the Government with explanations. "We do not give up on our requests, and the government's response depends on our further steps," Zarubica said. General Secretary of the Free Trade Unions Srdjan Kekovic said he would not give up on his demands and expect the Government to respond in the coming days. If the deal fails to produce results, Kekovic said he would follow a law referendum initiative, and then a general strike. He pointed out that such a proposed pension scheme does not suit either workers or retirees, which is why he expects their support in further activities.
As the public debt grows, the age limit for retirement increases
Representatives of the ministry have stated at a meeting of the EU that they are also going to retire at 65 or 67 years of age and with 40 years of service, though union representatives indicated the countries where retirements are from 60 or 62 years, and firefighters, soldiers, cops, miners, ballerinas from 45 to 55 years of age. They have also compared the limit for retirement if the public debt of that country is higher.
The syndicate's comments were that workers and pensioners were not guilty of such public debt of the state but the state officials and businessmen who did not pay taxes so they should bear the consequences.
"If you gave my grandmother a billion dollars for ten years, she would have made a better state," one of the trade unions said.
Will the officials return the national pensions?
The unionists asked the minister and his colleagues how they are personally prepared to sacrifice themselves to "stabilize public finances," as well as whether the legitimacy of deputies and government officials will be abolished by amending the law, will they return the one-thousand euros of "national pension" they receive for only eight years of on the function, while now workers and their children are forced to work up to 67 years for 150 and 200 euros.
"Do you think a nurse can work at 67 years of age? Who will be guilty of making mistakes and endangering one's life in those years? Will she be liable as the minister who makes a mistake of 115 million?" asked one of the representatives of the health union, but remained without any answers.
Text by Marija Mirjacic and Goran Kapor on September 19th, 2018, read more at Vijesti
