Bulgarian Syndicates Reject Equalizing Retirement Age

The leader of KNSB, Plamen Dimitrov, says that making retirement age the same for males and females in Bulgaria after 2020 is a mute issue for the country's labor unions. Photo by BGNES

One of the two major labor unions, the Confederation of Free and Independent Syndicates in Bulgaria, KNSB, has rejected Tuesday the cabinet's idea to make retirement age for males and females the same after 2020

The KNSB Leader, Plamen Dimitrov, points out that there is no reason for such move. He notes that it is not a commitment made by any of the social partners when negotiating the retirement reform, nor a request coming from Brussels or any other legitimate organization such as a business or a labor union.

"This issue is mute for us. We don't even intend to discuss it or comment on it – not now, not in the next few days, months, and years," concluded Dimitrov.

The news that retirement age in Bulgaria for males and females will be the same after 2020 was announced Monday by the Minister of Social Policy and Labor, Totyu Mladenov.

Mladenov explained that in 2017 retirement age for men would reach 65 while by 2020 the one for females will be 63, and it will increase, along with the required years of service, by 4 months each year for both sexes. He added that making retirement age the same after 2020 can only happen gradually.

The minimum retirement age in Bulgaria was increased by 4 months as of January 1, 2012, as part of a controversial retirement reform package that kicked in.

The same measure will be applied on the first day of each of the upcoming several years, until the retirement age in Bulgaria reaches 65 years for men and 63 for women.

Up until the new pension reform was approved in December 2011, Bulgaria's retirement age was 63 years for men and 60 years for women.

In addition, the minimum time served by police and military officers in Bulgaria required for retirement has been increased by 2 years, reaching 27 years.

In December, Bulgaria's Parliament expectedly rejected the veto imposed by outgoing President Georgi Parvanov on retirement age changes.

The controversial "retirement reform" to up the pension age was initiated by Finance Minister Simeon Djankov in the fall of 2011 as a way of saving budget funds sooner rather than later; an earlier agreement with syndicates and business organizations was supposed to delay the increase of the retirement age in Bulgaria till 2021.

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