ZAGREB, September 24, 2019 – Prime Minister Andrej Plenković said on Monday that it was very important that the pension reform would be carried on, with only two important nuances being different – the statutory retirement age and penalisation for early retirement per year of service, namely the restoration of the statutory retirement age from 67 to 65 and reduction of penalisation for early retirement from 0.3% to 0.2%.
After opening the Croatian Post’s New Sorting Centre in Velika Gorica on Monday evening, the prime minister answered a number of questions from the press, including one on changes to the pension reform.
He recalled that the laws on pension insurance and labour and five sector laws regulating the retirement age, one of which referred to demands by the “67 is too much” initiative and the other provided for the possibility of employees agreeing with their employers to work until 68, were put to public consultation today.
The laws will be under public consultation for the next 15 days, the government will discuss them in mid-October, they will receive one reading in the parliament and be adopted, and they will go into force on 1 January 2020, he said.
He said that it was important that during the term of his government, pensions had gone up 11.5%, the minimum pension was 15% higher, and that nobody would be discriminated against with the introduction of the possibility to stay on the labour market until 68.
In two years’ time, we will assess the total financial effect, he added.
Plenković noted that Croatians had to be aware of European trends because the average life expectancy in the EU was 80, which, he said, would soon be the life expectancy in Croatia as well, and that one had to take that fact into account.
He said that the regulation under which the issue of one’s retirement would be based on an agreement between workers and employers was very good and that employers would eventually be satisfied as well.
“I don’t see any problem there, I don’t think it is realistic that someone will misuse that possibility to go on sick leave for three years after turning 65, I don’t believe that will happen,” he said.
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