Tripartite agrees on early retirement for demanding professions

Prague, July 10 (CTK) - The expert team of the tripartite (the Czech government, trade unions and employers) has agreed on the outlines of the legislation thanks to which people executing demanding and risky professions will be eligible to early retirement, trade union representatives told CTK yesterday.

The early retirement is to be possible without a reduction of the pensions.

Employers are to contribute to it.

The measure is to be part of the amendment to the pension insurance system law, the trade union representatives said.

The Labour and Social Affairs Ministry has confirmed the information on the consensus on the basic outlines of the project.

According to the expert team, employees with demanding professions are to be able to retire one to five years earlier than prescribed by the law.

The list of the professions is not definitively fixed. It is to be set down in the collective agreements or internal rules by individual employers.

The employer is to pay a sum reaching 2-3 percent of the salaries, beyond its framework, to a pension fund.

"We are demanding 3 percent so that the scheme really makes sense," Vit Samek, from the Bohemian and Moravian Trade Union Confederation (CMKOS), said.

The saved money is to be spent on premature pensions. It is to be paid during the time until full old-age pension will be available.

On June 21, the government proposed an increase in the age at retirement for economic reasons and due to the growing life expectancy. It will relate to the women born after 1955 and men after 1965.

The age at retirement is to be unified for both sexes in 2041.

Under the legislation, people aged 40 now are to retire at 66 years, the cohorts born in 1977 at 67 years.

Younger cohorts have to retire even later, those aged ten now at the age of 71 and those born next year at 73 years, which means in 2085.