site.btaTrade Unions Propose Gradual Increase of Retirement Age, Pensionable Service

Trade Unions Propose Gradual Increase of Retirement Age, Pensionable Service

Sofia, March 30 (BTA) - Trade unions on Monday proposed that the
retirement age and the required length of pensionable service
should be increased gradually by one month a year for men and
two months a year for women over a period of 20 to 25 years.
Pensions should be increased to equal 65 per cent of the
pre-retirement salary, they said.

The proposals were unveiled by Plamen Dimitrov, President of the
Confederation of Independent Trade Unions in Bulgaria (CITUB),
during the annual national conference of the Federation of
Transport Workers' Unions in Bulgaria (FTUB).

Dimitrov said that in order to stabilize the pension system, it
is necessary to boost social insurance compliance and, perhaps,
to increase the social insurance contribution rate by half a
percentage point every year.

CITUB wants the government to draw up an anti-deflation
programme. According to Dimitrov, deflation can be suppressed by
boosting incomes. He estimated that two Bulgarians in three do
not have any savings, and those who do cannot usually save more
than 1,000 leva.

CITUB also calls for the introduction of a non-taxable personal
income threshold, which is included in the political programmes
of three of the parties in the ruling coalition.

The unions expect the government to show that it is prepared to
implement a clear economic policy for industrial revival. The
new debt incurred by the government has a stabilizing effect on
the banking system, but it should also be used to boost
industrial development, Dimitrov said.

He and FTUB President Ekaterina Yordanova said it was a great
success for the national trade union movement that Sofia hosted
the 43rd Congress of the International Transport Workers'
Federation in August 2014. Every year FTUB initiates
negotiations on social insurance thresholds for transport
workers. In 2014 the thresholds were raised by 12 per cent for
air transport workers and by 3 per cent for logistics managers
and experts, the union said.