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Trade unionists picketed the parliament building, demanding a fair and sustainable pension system reform, guaranteeing a decent pension to beneficiaries
Trade unionists picketed today, December 9, the parliament building, demanding the deputies to consider the amendments of the National Trade Union Confederation of Moldova (CNSM) to the draft of the pension system reform, which is going to be debated in the first reading in the parliament session.
The action was attended by representatives of branch trade union federations, chanting: “We want decent pensions,” “No illegal labour”, “Social justice”, “Increase of the minimum wage,” “Valuing pensions for all pensioners”, “Age of retirement correlated with life expectancy”, “Anticipated pension: today, not tomorrow.”
“We want our voice to be heard, so lawmakers adopt a reform for citizens, that would not admit social inequity,” declared Oleg Budza, CNSM president.
Petru Chiriac, vice president of CNSM, read out the amendments of the trade unions to the draft of the reform, which were handed to the deputies, noting that the most stringent provisions relate to: increasing the retirement age and contribution periods, recalculation of pensions for people who continue to work after retirement, indexation of pensions, the right to establish early retirement pension and the establishment of the basic pension for all beneficiaries of pensions.
“We want our voice to be heard, so lawmakers adopt a reform for citizens, that would not admit social inequity,” declared Oleg Budza, CNSM president.
Trade unionists have managed to talk to a group of deputies from the opposition, who gave assurances that they would request the extension for discussions with civil society on this subject to be examined the proposals of all parties, establishing in this regard, a meeting for next week.
Today, during a press conference, the board of CNSM expressed its support to the need to reform the pension system in the country, but it should be carried out in parallel with other reforms: the illegal employment and the payment of wages “in envelopes”, attraction of investments in the country, creation of well-paid jobs, increase of wages in the public sector etc.
Oleg Budza said that pension reform must take into account several important aspects – low life expectancy and poor health of Moldovan citizens. “If the state would take appropriate measures to reduce the informal economy, which reached tremendous proportions in recent years, would identify the financial resources needed to improve the socio-economic situation and health of citizens, which would allow the reform of the pension system not be so painful for employees and trade union members”, said the trade union leader.
Budza stressed that the issue of pension system reform was discussed by trade unionists during the platforms for social dialogue – at the last meeting of the National Commission for Consultations and Collective Bargaining, led by First Deputy Prime Minister Octavian Calmîc; during the meeting with Prime Minister Pavel Filip on the 5th of December, but also within Parliament’s standing committees.
In turn, Sergiu Sainciuc, vice president of CNSM, emphasized the active participation of trade union representatives in the working group on implementation of the reform of the pension system, where they presented their proposals on this subject. He also said that the draft approved by the Government is generally well intentioned. “However, we want to improve it, so that the reform can ensure a fair and sustainable pension system, guaranteeing a decent pension for the beneficiaries,” said Sainciuc.
One of the key provisions of the draft of the reform, on which trade unions have a different view than the state, refers to increase of the retirement age and contribution periods, which, in their opinion, will have a detrimental impact on the citizens of Moldova. As argument to the increase are being brought examples of Western countries, but without taking into account the life expectancy of women and men in the country, which is still at a very low level compared to those countries.
According to the NBS in 2015, life expectancy at birth was 75.5 years for women and 67.5 years for men. Ageing World Report for 2015, prepared by the United Nations, ranks Moldova on the second lowest life expectancy in the category of men, respectively, last in life expectancy of women in the ranking of European countries.
Another worrying aspect of the proposed reform is to give the right to recalculate annual pension only to people who will set their retirement pensions from the 1st of January 2017. Thus, people who already benefit of pension and continue to work in the labour market, over the years paying social insurance contributions, will be discriminated against new pensioners, being deprived of this right.
Similarly, the draft law approved by the Government comes to diminish the rights of pensioners through pension indexation once a year and only to the consumer price index if its value exceeds 2%, which, according to trade unionists, will lead to inadequate and delayed indexation. Therefore, CNSM insist indexation of pensions to be carried out twice a year: on the 1st of April and the 1st of October.
“We want to improve the draft so that the reform can ensure a fair and sustainable pension system, guaranteeing a decent pension to the beneficiaries” – Sergiu Sainciuc, vice president of CNSM
Trade unions have called for establishing the right to early retirement pension to policyholders who have achieved complete contribution period five years before reaching the standard retirement age, which is one of international practices in the field of social security. However, the draft links the grant of that right three years before reaching the standard retirement age of 65 for men and 62 for women.
In this context, to ensure effective and functional implementation of the norm, it is necessary to grant the right to early retirement of persons who have completed the total contribution period required by law at least three to five years above the standard retirement age at the time, but not at the standard age that will be reached in 2026 for women and 2025 for men. Or, the norm in the way it has been approved by the Government will not be functional.
In addition, it is worth mentioning that the Government has ignored trade union proposals vehemently on establishing the basic pension for all pension beneficiaries. Moreover, the draft provides for annulment, as from the 1st of April 2017, of state financial support for beneficiaries of pensions established under Law no.156 / 1998 on state social insurance pensions. Thus, of the mentioned support will be deprived beneficiaries of pensions up to 1,500 lei, which is inadmissible as long as it was not established a basic pension granted to all pension beneficiaries.
Another provision of the draft reform, on which CNSM expressed categorically against, relates to valuing pensions just to beneficiaries who have settled in 2001-2008. According to the draft, only 67.8 thousand pensioners will benefit from valuing insured income included in the calculation of old-age pension. Other 459 000 people (270 000 who have retired prior to the year 2001 and 189 000 – retired in the years 2009-2016) will be deprived of the right to valorisation and increase of pension amounts.
The full list of CNSM amendments to the draft of the pension system reform can be found in the attachement.
Department of mass media and international relations
