Unions and politicians on the left have reacted with outrage to a proposal to raise the retirement age to 70. The social association VdK also opposed a corresponding initiative by the president of the employers’ association Gesamtmetall, Stefan Wolf.
In a conversation with the newspapers of the Funke media group, he spoke out in favor of a longer working life and justified this, among other things, with an aging society. “If you look at the demographic development and the burden on social security and pension funds, then the reserves have been used up. We will have to work longer and more,” said Wolf. “We will gradually have to go up to the retirement age of 70 – also because people are living longer.” Otherwise the system will no longer be financially viable in the medium term.
DGB: Advance is pension reduction with announcement
Representatives of the German Trade Union Confederation (DGB) and the trade unions IG Bau and IG Metall disagreed. DGB board member Anja Piel explained that the initiative was “nothing more than a pension cut with an announcement”. Many employees would already no longer be able to “stay healthy until retirement,” she said. “For those who work in care, construction or factories, working long hours is not an option.” Those who work hard have a “significantly lower life expectancy” anyway and therefore receive a shorter pension, said Piel. Even with an aging society, the federal government has a responsibility “to set a good and adequate pension as a promise of security”.
VdK President Verena Bentele suggested putting the statutory pension insurance on a more solid financial basis. “Instead of unrealistic considerations of further raising the retirement age, we must strengthen the statutory pension insurance system. This means that in the future everyone will have to pay in there – in addition to employees, civil servants, the self-employed and politicians,” said Bentele. Such a “pension for all” strengthens the system and leads to more justice, said the head of the association. In Austria this has long been a reality.
Heil declined further increases
There are currently plans in this country to gradually raise the retirement age from 65 to 67 years without deductions by 2029. Federal Minister of Labor Hubertus Heil (SPD) rejects a further increase. As early as May, after a push by economists to retire at 70, he said: “We have agreed in the coalition that we will not raise the statutory retirement age. And that will not change.”
The IG-Bau national chairman Robert Feiger accused the metal employers of wanting to provoke a new “class of poverty in old age” among craftsmen and industrial workers. “The harder you work, the sooner you fall into the pension hole,” Feiger told the newspapers of the Funke media group. For professional groups such as carpenters, roofers or scaffolders, even retirement at 65 is “too long”, argued the union boss.
Bartsch: Proposal is “antisocial bullshit”
Left faction leader Dietmar Bartsch also reacted with outrage. “Suggestions such as pensions only after the age of 70 or a 42-hour week are antisocial bullshit,” Bartsch told the editorial network Germany. In this exceptional situation, the employers’ associations would have to fulfill their social responsibility with skyrocketing prices. “There must be no igniting of social peace.”
Just like VdK boss Bentele, Bartsch also referred to the example of Austria. “Instead of a pension only from the age of 70, all citizens pay in there – including politicians and managers,” said the left-wing politician. “In Austria, the average pension is 800 euros higher than in this country and it is paid out from the age of 65. What Austria can do, Germany must also be able to do.”
