“They dealt a blow to the working class when they raised the minimum retirement age”, says leader of the Italian General Labor Center
“The first pension reform in Italy created a huge income gap between those who received the previous model and young people, who now only have to rely on their own pension contributions. Today, many retirees who receive this contributory system end up receiving pensions below the minimum wage, which is completely undignified.” These were the words of the director of the Italian General Labor Confederation (CGIL), Sandra Pareschi, who participated in an event in Porto Alegre on Thursday (31).
The union leader recalled that “in the past, workers, who lost their jobs with five years left before retiring, received from our INPS the amounts necessary to contribute during the period and file a retirement application”. Now, according to her, “this changed with the first major pension reform in Italy, in 1995, when a contributory model was implemented, similar to the capitalization regime existing in other countries”, such as Chile.
“No work and no retirement”
“In Italy we had one reform after another, when our INPS was considered deficient by the right. Our national Social Security Institute covers other things, such as unemployment insurance, sickness benefit, in short, a series of social benefits”, he highlighted.
Sandra said that “they dealt a blow to the working class when they increased the minimum retirement age for women, which rose to 67 years old, as well as for men”. Previously, women retired at 60 and men at 65. The contribution period, which was 35 years, was also increased to 41 years.
“The parties that came into government promised that they would remove this terrible reform. Now they have carried out a mini-reform, which is called quota 100, which is the sum of the years of contribution and the person's age, but there must be a minimum of 38 years of contribution and a minimum age of 62 years old”, highlighted the union leader. Therefore, in practice, several workers do not fit into quota 100, which will be 102, 103 and so on, depending on the contribution time.
According to her, it is a worse version of the 85/95 formula, sanctioned by deposed president Dilma Rousseff, in 2015, which this year changed to 86/96, but without a minimum age or contribution period.
“Today, in Italy, the longer someone lives, the more they have to work. My younger sister did the calculations and will have to work until she is 70. Tell me: which company gives a job to a person over 70? The probability is that she will be left without both things: without work and without retirement”, concludes the leader of the largest union center in Italy, with more than 5,5 million members.
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