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UNI Europa P&M demands Commission rethink on pension proposals



The Steering Group of UNI Europa Professionals and Mangers (P&M) is urging the European Commission (EC) to rethink the proposals in its pensions white paper, An Agenda for Adequate, Safe and Sustainable Pensions.



Debating the EC white paper at UNI Europa’s P&M Steering Group in Brussels on 4 September, P&M affiliates warned that the Commission proposals did not offer the innovative solutions that are required from EU Member States to build fair, funded public pension scheme that reflects the reality of P&M workers.



Commenting on UNI Europa P&M’s response to the Commission’s consultation, the UNI Europa P&M President, Martin Jefflen, said: “We accept that expenditure on pensions is increasing but it is important to recognise that more and more P&M workers are employed within systems where there are either collective company agreements or individual contracts. The proposals contained in the Commission’s white paper fail to deal with these challenges.



“It is one thing for the Commission to say that we should increase the retirement age, but the absence of any proposals about what steps should be taken to get a commitment from employers and industry to hire workers at an older age casts real doubts on whether an increased age for pensions would have any effect, especially with the scale of age discrimination which we know exists.



“Additionally, how can it be reasonable to force older people to work longer for a lower salary if decent work prospects cannot be assured? And how does this proposal address the youth unemployment rates across many EU Member States that are at a crisis point, between 20-50 per cent? What is the strategy to ensure making older people work longer will not prevent younger people from getting access to the job market, or protect them from lower salaries, which would in itself impact on another one of the Commission’s proposals which is to encourage people to contribute more towards their pension? There are even more concerns about gender inequality issues within pension schemes across Europe that need closer attention.”



UNI World P&M President, Ulf Bengtsson, added to the list of concerns: “With increasing mobility of people within the EU and the stated desire to increase this further, more thought is needed from the Commission on how to enable people to benefit from a pension system that supports their mobility. How can we achieve shorter vesting periods, a decent indexation of dormant pension rights, and enable people to receive their pension irrespective of their place of residence in the EU? The Commission needs to address these and other problems such as how ‘defined benefit systems’ can be reformed to provide for a transferability of pension capital, and how we tackle the increasing cost for introducing such a possibility which will most likely be paid by the remaining collective contributors who do not use their right to move their capital.”



UNI’s Global Director for Professionals and Managers, Pav Akhtar, concluded: “UNI P&M is concerned that little account has been taken of how to strengthen public pension systems which are the key protection that most people depend on in retirement. When we combine below-inflation rate pension payments with above-inflation food and fuel costs, among other increases, this will have a negative impact on the net worth of guaranteed pension incomes.”



“The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights and Treaty on the Functioning of the EU require robust arguments from the Commission on how to extend social protection and make public pension systems viable. In this debate we must engage P&M workers, unions and employers to find innovative ways in which public pension systems can be increased; how access to skills development and educational opportunities can be expanded; how quality jobs can be sought and established, and how minimum wages can be guaranteed to strengthen public pension systems.”



UNI’s P&M affiliates are encouraged to read the European Commission’s white paper on pensions, as well as UNI Europa P&M’s reponse to this, and then formulate their own feedback to the Commission. UNI P&M welcomes any comment from affiliates to its response that has been produced for submission to the Commission. UNI Europa P&M is looking at next steps to build a campaign to lobby the EU for more just and equitable pension schemes.