The government is expected to send its revised pension reform bill to the social partners on Friday, a day after a meeting of the Labour Advisory Board that focused on the 12 per cent penalty.
At Thursday’s meeting, the parties resubmitted their proposals on the penalty, an actuarial reduction, but the Labour Ministry gave no response, Phileleftheros understands. A study by the ministry and the actuary had previously found that the unions’ proposals would cost more than the government’s.
Labour Minister Marinos Moushouttas said the social partners had been asked to resubmit their positions to see whether they could be combined with the government’s proposal. He said the ministry had not taken a position on their proposals, but stressed that the financial capacity of both the Fund and the state was always taken into account.
The penalty was the main issue among five discussed at the meeting.
Low-pension allowance
A proposal was submitted to raise the low-pension allowance from the 910 euros proposed by the government to 1,130 euros, which is the poverty line. Moushouttas noted that this would mean extra cost, but said: “We will listen to the views to see if there is any room for changes.”
Widowers’ pensions
The unions have repeatedly raised the case of men whose wives died before 1 January 2018. Under current law they are not entitled to a widow’s pension. In a recent discussion of the issue, the minister said such a change would require about 35 million euros in extra funding.
Provident funds
Talks on provident funds, which have so far been held in technical committees, will move to the Labour Advisory Board on 29 October, when the parties will be asked to present their positions. Two further sessions are scheduled for 20 and 27 October.
Moushouttas said the unions had again called for the provident fund talks to run in parallel, and for a framework agreement to be reached at least before the legislation on the first pillar is voted on. The ministry had again told the social partners it wanted the provident fund sessions speeded up, he said.
Dividends
The minister explained that social insurance on dividends would be capped at up to two units of the insurance account, with income counted up to 23,000 euros. A person with a salary of 15,000 euros a year and dividends of 30,000 euros, for example, would pay contributions on the 15,000-euro salary and on 8,000 euros of the dividends.
He said the measure aimed to address the practice of some employees declaring salaries of 500 to 750 euros a month, or 9,000 to 10,000 euros a year. On that basis, they would qualify for a social pension and the low-pension allowance, which he described as an “injustice” the government was trying to correct.
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