KRIB's position in relation to the publicly disclosed views of the Ministry of Labor and Welfare on pension reform

                 
                               AIKB                             BSK KRIB

POSITION

in connection with the publicly announced views of the Ministry of Labor and Welfare on pension reform

The representative organizations of employers in Bulgaria express their extreme dissatisfaction and disappointment with the views on pension reform presented by MTSP. We regret to note the abandonment of the program intentions of the parties in the coalition government, proclaimed during the last election campaign, as well as the frank non-compliance with the repeatedly presented and reasoned proposals of the employers' organizations.

The presented ideas for changes in the pension system do not meet the requirements for a comprehensive structural reform, but only aim to increase the income part with the aim of overcoming the deficit of the DOO, and hence - of the consolidated state budget. The most essential and urgent changes that should be implemented are excluded from the package of planned measures, including:

1. Cleaning the insurance system of all social payments, which have nothing to do with the insurance contribution, but are of a social assistance nature. The structural ambiguity about the nature of the social security system continues!

2. Limiting large-scale abuses of the acquisition of disability pensions, regardless of the presence of a high degree of agreement between the social partners on this issue. We cannot hide our bewilderment at such passing over of the problem. In practice, this excessively expensive "pleasure" continues to be tolerated for society, for all insured persons in the most massive - third category of work, for current and future pensioners.

3. Restructuring of the early retirement system, incl. to the persons under Art. 69/KSO. Despite calls for radical changes, the legislation continues to produce, and society continues to support, at the expense of the insurance funds, obscenely young pensioners who served in the defense, security and judicial system of the Republic of Bulgaria, receiving significantly higher pensions than other citizens.

In the public statement of the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Labor and Social Policy, Mr. Ivaylo Kalfin, there is talk of a "smooth increase in the retirement age", even a "maximum smooth increase". Employers' organizations have repeatedly substantiated with numbers the need to radical transition to a simultaneous increase of the insurance length of service and the retirement age, taking into account the demographic situation. These arguments are passed over without any reasonable arguments.

Last but not least, it should be noted the intention to increase insurance contributions, which comes into serious conflict with what the ruling coalition parties stated during the last election campaign and with the 3-year governance framework. We have to remind that the voters voted in support of the statements to preserve or even to reduce the insurance burden, and not to increase it in order to fill deficits caused by structural deformations, as offered to us in the latest vision of pension reform.

Nationally representative employers' organizations consider it their duty to remind the government and its supporting parliamentary majority that making structural changes in the pension system should outline a horizon and a perspective of at least 30 to 50 years and in no way can be tied to opportunistic interests and expected results for the upcoming local and other elections.

We appeal to the parliamentary majority and the opposition not to abuse the debates surrounding the pension reform for pre-election purposes. Reformed pension legislation should survive more than ten election cycles, be they for legislative, local or presidential elections.

Nationally representative employers' organizations strongly insist on rethinking the proposed vision for pension reform. We believe that the proposals are half-hearted, omitting or delaying the resolution of the most significant issues on which there is a large degree of agreement. Defects and vices of the previous system are being reproduced, which have damaged and severely damage the insurance system, will continue to generate deficits and keep an inadequate amount of pensions for the insured persons.