site.btaSocial Partners Reach Agreement on Pension Reform Proposals

Social Partners Reach Agreement on Pension Reform Proposals

Sofia, May 20 (BTA) - The government, employers and trade unions
have reached agreement in principle about a set of proposals on
the pension reform which are to be submitted to Parliament,
Prime Minister Boyko Borissov and Labour and Social Policy
Minister Ivailo Kalfin told a news briefing on Wednesday. They
noted that all parties concerned have made concessions.

Borissov and Kalfin spoke to the media after the Council of
Ministers met with its social partners. The Prime Minister said
that the proposals will be supported by the GERB parliamentary
group and expressed hope that the other groups will back them as
well.

The package envisages a gradual increase of the retirement age
for third-category employees (the most common type) until it
eventually reaches 65 years for both men and women. A minimum
retirement age will be established in the security sector at 52
years and 10 months, Confederation of Independent Trade Unions
in Bulgaria President Plamen Dimitrov said, adding that the plan
is to differentiate the retirement age in the sector according
to the types of jobs. The minimum level will increase gradually
to 55 years.

The social partners agreed that the retirement age for
second-category employees will rise to 60 years and for
first-category employees to 55 years. Retirement conditions for
these two special categories will remain unchanged.

Underground miners who work in particularly difficult conditions
will be able to retire at 45 years of age, which is even
earlier than first-category workers, the social partners agreed.
The possibility for early retirement in the event of company
liquidation or staff layoffs will be preserved, Podkrepa
Confederation of Labour President Dimiter Manolov said. People
who avail themselves of that opportunity will not be allowed to
work anymore. "We will not allow people who have retired to go
on working as miners and get both a pension and a wage," Prime
Minister Borissov said.

Social security contributions will be increased by 1 percentage
point in 2017 and by another point in 2018, but the increase
will go towards public social insurance, not towards the second
pillar of social insurance as proposed earlier.

More decisions remain to be made on disability pensions and the
second pillar of the pension system.