‘Pensions will be cut and for that lower pension people will have to work longer and harder’. That is the common thread running through the future federal government’s pension plans, says Ann Vermorgen, president of the Christian union ACV. The 3 major trade unions are today taking large-scale action against those plans.
‘We want to avoid the government chopping into pensions. They want to save 3 billion euros,’ Vermorgen told VRT. Exactly what the reform will look like and its size, is not yet entirely clear.
Deep reforms on the cards
What has been clear for a while is that deep cuts are on the way. ‘A reform has to happen and it will be very profound in the long term, that is absolutely true,’ formateur Bart De Wever (N-VA) told guests at his party’s New Year’s reception last weekend.
‘But it is necessary. The cost of an ageing population is rising by 3.4 billion euros a year. That someone who is 20 today will have the same pension rights as civil servants with life tenure today, that’s just not going to happen.’
Flemish nationalist N-VA, Christian democrat CD&V and socialist Vooruit and Francophone liberal MR and centrist Les Engagés are still negotiating a pension reform. If they stick to their self-imposed deadline of 31 January, we should know the precise measures by then. In recent months, several versions of Mr De Wever’s so-called super memorandum have leaked. A lot can already be inferred from these.
-Identical rules for employees and civil servants
For instance, the parties are considering making people work longer before they are entitled to a minimum pension, and early retirement and long-term unemployment would no longer count towards building up pension rights.
The unions are taking to the streets today mainly out of dissatisfaction with what the government plans to do with the pensions of civil servants, which includes teachers. Some benefits to which they are now entitled would fall by the wayside.
Civil servants will be allowed to retire later, after 42 years instead of 40, and would have to work longer to build up a full pension. Moreover, their pension would be calculated differently: as is the case for other employees, from 2040 pensions will be calculated on the basis of average lifetime earnings. For civil servants, pensions are now based on the salary of the last 10 years of their career and that ensures a higher pension.
